Beginning Again
by carryonmycobaltangel
Summary: It was never supposed to turn out like this; where one horrific event bleeds into another, and what little hope remains is fading fast. That was the case, until a plan was formed that could potentially create a better, and brighter future for all of us. But what unforeseen consequences will arise with every step taken along the way? [Book 1 of the "Second Ascension" series]
1. Chapter 1-From Point A

**Opening statements: **Hey! Thank you for clicking on my story, I greatly appreciate it!

Just to give you guys so more information on this story here. This fanfic is mainly AU, but, will still have parts from the main story line with certain lines or scenes. We're going to see how Alissa's life has changed, her friends' lives, how it will impact the Winchester's, along with a special someone as well. I will try and reveal them gradually as time goes on. The chapters won't be extremely long but they won't be really short either. I'll try to keep it that way just as long as writer's block doesn't get in the way too often.

****Other details:  
******Title: **Second Ascension  
**Rating:** M for typical show violence, great amounts of angst, cursing/swearing. If swearing is on the heavy side, there will be a warning; same goes for Triggers as well.  
**Pairing(s):** Castiel x OC  
**Timeline: **Takes place generally around S4/S5 for part of it and then it moves to S8/S9 for another. The majority of it is AU but will have references to canon timeline  
**Special Thanks:** To all of my friends who have pushed me into writing this and helping with the scenes

****Disclaimer:**** All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For the sake of copyright, this publisher does not own any part of _Supernatural_ (Plot, Characters, etc.) in which all rights go to the original owners. All original characters, plot, etc, are reserved to the fanfiction writer CarryOnMyCobaltAngel/carryonmycobaltangel and associates.

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Chapter 1/From Point A…  
"_You cannot advance if you cannot visualize the end from the start._"  
~Nabil N. Jamal

In through the landscape of once vibrant greens and browns, a figure stood upon a hill looming over a camp filled with old, wooden cabins hiding between the oak and pine trees. Their branches reaching towards the endless, dusty sky of the dense forest where a chain link gate stood at the tree's entrance. The area was too quiet; dead. Not even a blowing breeze or birds chirping. The environment was nothing new to him, just another ordinary day being covered in dirt, blood, and grime that couldn't be washed away no matter how hard you scrubbed. It seeped into his short, muddy, brown hair not knowing where the hair strands start and the caked mud ends. It clings to his gray T-shirt that was once a brightened white, now a dark gray. It holds tight to his light, blue jeans patched from the tears and holes from wear. The terrain bore into the red Converse shoes turned rustic and worn down, seeing its better days. It stains his pale complexion, rounded features that of an innocent child, but not his shining blue eyes; for all the horrors he had witnessed, not once had they dulled. The stance he held of his five foot five body resembled a soldier heading to war; stiff and on guard.

Inching closer to the edge trying not to make any sudden sounds, he spotted a woman walking into said camp some thirty feet away. Appearing to be in her early to mid-thirties, she walked with high stride as if on a mission, roughly twenty feet away from the gate. Blood and dirt covered her from her shoulder-length, auburn curly haired head, down her pale skinned features, her now heavily torn, navy tank top underneath a black leather jacket; a large tear on the right arm (still oozing out the red liquid), to her dark wash jeans sporting rips along the bottom resting over her black, severely scuffed, boots still holding on with everything it has.

He watched her for a moment before turning around. "Sir," his young, high-pitched voice alerted behind him. Another man walked up to investigate, coming out of the shadows of the surrounding trees upon the hill. He was much taller than the other standing at roughly five foot ten. A dark jacket with a dark gray T-shirt underneath covered his upper body while black jeans and dark combat boots on his lower half. Just like his partner, the uncleanliness of the environment grabbed onto him and would not let go. Smudged and smeared over his tanned features, his dark brown hair with a comb over to the left, strong jaw line, somewhat muscular frame and around his deep ocean eyes that held all the emotions since they drained everything else from the rest of him.

They both looked to the woman who was almost to the gate, only some fifteen feet left to go. Her injuries didn't seem to bother her but the taller man knew better; inside her was nothing but sadness and pain. Gone are the days of pure happiness when everything was put back in order, no impending doom looming over everyone's shoulders, no high stakes to deal with, and no Big Bad to defeat. It was all short lived; now all of Heaven and Hell broke loose, setting that weight back to where it should not have gone in the first place. "Is this who you are looking for?" The first man inquired, glancing between his friend and the woman below, who bared a striking resemblance to another woman he knew. Why was he searching for this girl?

His ocean orbs watched her intently for a minute until he answered with his gravel filled voice. "Yes, it is," his facial expression was steeled. But his eyes, oh his eyes, held such emotions and feelings that twisted, turned, rolled, and churned like waves of the great stormy seas. Each single sensation ran into the next, creating the problem of pinpointing the exact sentiment in that particular moment.

Shifting his weight in the tall, dead weeds surrounding their feet caused a noise to echo down below. Freezing in her tracks, she spun on her heels making her hair follow the motion fluidly, revealing her darkened gunmetal blue eyes. She reached under her jacket nestling at the small of her back to pull out something for defense as if on instinct while she surveyed the area around her, gripping the weapon tightly in her hand; a long and silver, triangular shaped blade with rounded hilt, ready for any kind of attack despite being already battered, bruised, and bloody. Her gaze landed on the hill where both figures stood frozen not ready to be caught. Her eyes squint in concentration, seeing if anything was stationed upon it, only to find out it was just a hill. Slowly turning back to the direction of the campsite after checking that everything was clear, but not wanting to drop her guard yet for precautionary measures, she headed off through the gates, to her final destination.

It was the minute they had ever experienced in such a long time. The shorter man let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and shifted his gaze to the taller man still standing next to him. His eyes looked distant, lost in deep thought unknowingly until he broke out, leaving him immediately confused only for a millisecond. It was easy for his mind to wander, to be enveloped by the thoughts nowadays. He couldn't help it and it wasn't like he was doing it on purpose. Ever since things had changed drastically for him, it very well could have been a coping mechanism to escape the horror he's seen, drifting to the good and wonderful memories but they don't always work as well as people seem to think, however.

"Is there a reason as to why we're here? Why we were looking for this girl in particular and why she looks _just_ like- Wait…" The younger man started to say while his brain worked on connecting the final dots. He couldn't be serious? Right? There was no way he would even _think_ about taking that route! His eyes widened at the realization and let out a small, inaudible breath. "You _can't_ be serious?"

"Samandriel," The taller man warned, keeping his head focused down below.

"Castiel, please don't tell me this is what I think you're trying to accomplish," Samandriel replied, fearful of what the answer would be to his suspicions. He wouldn't purposely try to do something this grand without acknowledging the consequences...right?

Castiel then decided to risk a glance over to Samandriel's face, which he instantly regretted and cast his view back down after seeing the intense gaze in those light blue eyes.

That was all the confirmation Samandriel needed. "Do you realize the consequences this could create for not only you, Castiel, but for the others as well?"

Castiel sent out another quiet sigh before answering. "I understand that."

Samandriel's face scrunched minutely in confusion. "What are you going to do when everything ends up going in a completely different direction that how you originally organized it?"

"As she once said, '_we will worry about it when the time comes and until then, keep the plan in motion._' That's what I intend on doing," Castiel replied, shortly. He was starting to become annoyed that his friend wouldn't drop the subject matter but he knew that Samandriel was only being worried for his well-being.

"Eventually that will backfire on you greatly," Samandriel muttered.

"That's enough, Samandriel."

"All that I'm saying-"

"Please…just drop the subject," Castiel answered, with more force in his voice than he meant to. As long as it got the point across, he really didn't care, just as long the conversation about that particular subject wasn't spoken again.

Without wasting another second more, he turned to the way he came and headed off back into the tree's shadows. "_I won't go through it again...No one deserves to experience those horrors…_" Castiel thought to himself as he walked away, trying to hold back the oncoming-albeit fairly annoying- tears welling up in his eyes. His friend was about to say something else but decided against it, not risking another argument. Samandriel then followed suit behind his friend until he stopped short to take one last look behind him. A sad sigh entered the dead air as he swiveled around, walking away from the dreary scene.

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The sun shone brightly on a beautiful June day out in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where not a cloud was in sight and the temperature was a scorching ninety degrees Fahrenheit with a soft, cool breeze gently blowing around the surrounding property of an old salvage yard just a few miles outside of town; Singer Salvage to be more precise. Covering the vast size of grounds were various makes and models of old and somewhat newer cars of all shapes, sizes, and colors, with a large, mostly open, garage sitting off in the corner by the drive into the place. In a short walking distance away sat an old, three story house. The wood siding had light blue paint chipping off in some spots, rotting wood in others. Hubcaps hung decorative on one area in front of the house, next to the porch with a slanted roof and enclosed railings. It's not much to look at on the outside because it was the inside that made it so special and the same could be said for the owner of this magical place as well. Every downstairs room at the faint scent of aging wood and whiskey, and for some, they were not the most pleasant smells in the world, while others could breathe it in like air. Papers, books, magazines scattered in about every single room in the house (and then some) all stacked in cluttered piles about lore from all over the world; Scotland, Germany, Russia, Japan, France, England, etc., and from many different religions with a multitude of varying creatures ranging from the normal ghosts and ghost hauntings to the ever so mysterious reapers.

In a small corner of the little, 1950's style kitchen of pastel and white colored walls, sat a tiny, wooden table with four accompanying chairs surrounding it. More papers and books covered the top with vast amounts of lore, outlines and notes. Some of which were filled out by the young, twenty-four year old, woman sitting in one of those chairs with her legs crossed neatly trying to beat high humidity levels making the air hot and heavy. She wore tan tank top with a long, flowing design on the front composed of leaves and feathers which helped show off her slightly muscular arms, a pair of black with white trim shorts covered a majority of her upper-to-mid, toned thighs, and a pair of old, faded black and white sneakers laced on her large feet. Her back-length, auburn, curly hair was wrapped in a high, messy bun to keep it from sticking to her oval, easily sun burnt, face and causing more unnecessary heat; she's been planning for a while to get it cut but never really followed through with the plan. She hasn't grown used to the heat in Sioux Falls after living in Michigan for most of her life; theirs was much cooler than this. Even then, she's still not desensitized of it. Summer has never been her favorite since she was born towards the end of December. In the winter, the more clothes and blankets there are the better, while in the summer, there's only so much you can take off.

Despite sweating buckets in the heat, she was trying to enjoy herself while her gunmetal blue eyes scanned the page in front of her, a mechanical pencil in hand scratching across the paper, seemingly lost in her little world while doing her best to keep her mind occupied and away from the creeping black smoke of the dreams rolling around in her subconscious. She didn't even bother to pause to look at the pencil drawing she'd been working on. Just let the mind and hand wander across the page and go from there. It always seemed to work for whenever she had the time in between jobs, researching and helping Bobby out in the Salvage Yard. Sketching, drawing, anything with a pencil, was always something she loved to do ever since she was a kid. Her father used to draw when he was younger so when she saw his artwork way back at age seven, she immediately became fascinated. Whenever she was attempting to draw something from a TV show and she couldn't get one part right, off she went to find her dad to help. Eventually she grew away from drawing from TV and started making her own creations, growing and changing her styles that soon became something between semi-realism and full realism. It was a passion for her as well a way to connect with her father, since she ended up taking more after her father in more ways than one compared to her mother.

"-lissa."

"Alissa-"

"Alissa!"

She then felt a quick tap of the back of a hand on her upper arm, making her to jolt and almost caused a dark mark to fly across her drawing she spent so much of her time on. With a quick turn of her head, she looked up to see who the culprit of almost ruining her artwork was. Standing next to her was an older, five foot eleven, man with a beer belly wearing a red shirt underneath a hunter green and white flannel with sleeves rolled to the elbows, a pair of dirty blue jeans stained with dirt and oil from the garage, soft blue-gray eyes on his rounded face, graying beard and an old trucker's cap fastened on his short, peppered hair. "Hey, sorry. Didn't mean to spook ya," he apologized with his gruff voice. "Been callin' ya a few times but I guess ya didn't hear me," and despite his outward appearance, the very first impression would be that of a mean old drunk. Underneath all of that though, he had a large heart and is willing to push people in the right direction when they really needed it; sometimes it wasn't always gentle persuasion, but more along the lines of blunt accusation and that was just how he rolled. "You okay? No nightmares or anything?"

She leaned forward with an inward huff of annoyance, placing her drawing in the middle of the table on top of the large pile. This was the umpteenth time he asked her that since she started living here about six years ago, and every time it's the same exact answer. "Yes, Bobby, I'm all right. Nothing to worry about. Just kinda got too caught up in drawing. Sorry," the woman reassured him after regaining her composure from the scare with a small smile as she rubbed her right eye with the knuckle of her accompanying index finger. Readjusting her sitting position, she uncrossed her legs carefully from the wooden chair (since apparently the skin had stuck to the surface) and looked up at him again, who had his gaze facing down and away from her.

The man-now named Bobby-shifts his eyes at the table to where her work in progress sat and decided to look it over. It was a shaded bust of a middle aged woman with dark hair in loose ringlets with a great amount of her bangs on the right side reaching just past her shoulder blades, light skin, rounded face, small nose, large bright eyes, and dark, long sleeved shirt. There was a calming vibe coming off the page with warm, genuine smile on her medium-sized lips. He looked pleasantly surprised on the amount of detail the image had; he was always surprised, you could even say excited, because he never met anyone who could capture that amount of detail in their work to make it so life like. "This is looking pretty good," he complimented her, a smile on his face and in his voice. "Hey, why don't you take a break 'n run upstairs for me? I've got some demon books stashed in the attic that I need. Wanna go up 'n grab 'em?" He offered, placing a hand on the back of the chair she sat in, shifting his weight.

Dropping her head to glance at her artwork then up to Bobby, she nodded and got up slowly from the wooden chair as her skin stuck to the surface once again. "Yeah, I can do that," she answered while walking past him as he explained what they looked like. She headed out the door frame at the opposite side of the room of the table, in through the living room past the old, rust colored sofa, in through another archway leading to a gathering area by the white, front door and sitting on the far left where the wooden stairs elevated to the second level of the house. She had to be careful because some of the steps were becoming awfully creaky and loud; which were good for people breaking into the home (like they ever would with the amount of traps hidden among the place), but not so good when someone was sneaking out. "Be right back!" She called out, jogging up the steps, her messy bun flopping around with each movement causing stray hairs to fall out.

Bobby watched as she made her way up the stairs. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was only acting happy for him like she didn't want to bother him with her troubles. He knew she wasn't getting enough sleep by the way her eyes looked and how dark the circles were underneath them. It was absurd to think that she didn't tell him what was bothering her so much that she wasn't able to get the proper amount of sleep. He had a feeling it pertained to nightmares of her past but he wasn't sure. He definitely wasn't going to push her. He wanted to wait until she felt ready to tell him. But he won't wait forever, and not until the point where it gets to be too much either. He then sighed and went to his oak desk in the living room where another ancient book was patiently waiting to be read by a somewhat impatient man with a glass full of whiskey.

A half hour passed by and she was still sifting through the vast amount of dirt and grime plastered on every wall, ceiling, bookshelf and more trying to find the specific books Bobby had asked for while sitting in the middle of the room, on the floor (after she had cleaned it). She could only go as fast as the clutter allowed. Stacks upon stacks of books, tomes, magazines, pamphlets, flyers galore everywhere; all have a medium coating of dust. The overall size of the attic wasn't too large as it was about the size of a small mudroom. To her left side along the back wall, hung a medium sized, circular window and a small, teal colored, bench seat to sit and admire the view of the entirety of Singer Salvage. It was always a nice spot to read or draw if you needed someplace with peace and quiet but once it got dark there wasn't much lighting since the window was the main source of light unless you were to count the few oils lamps by the book shelves on either side of the small bench seat; which was a 'smart' idea, if you think about it. Alissa let out a very annoyed sigh as she plopped down another book in the "looked through" pile stationed to her left, clapping her hands to get rid of the dust and such that was on them. She had already found one of the books that Bobby wanted so now it was the hunt to find the other. Getting up off the floor to go grab another stack, since the other pile of "not looked through" had disappeared, she headed over to the twin sized bed located directly behind her. She grabbed one more giant pile, placed them on the floor where the old one resided, and quickly got to work again.

"Jeez, Bobby," she groaned, getting frustrated at the amount of volumes he had in there. This was unbelievable! There was absolutely no reason to have so much literature in one room, let alone the whole house! No reason whatsoever. "Something needs to be done about all of this. It's too much; too much clutter and too many books," she complained as she glanced through the pages of a book she held in her hands before setting it down in another stack. "Either get rid of them or reorganize them," she picked up one more book with a bored expression on her face that was soon replaced with joy once she had read the title and skimmed the first few pages. "Ha!" She shouted a little too loud for the small space. "About damn time I found it."

"Alissa!" the happy moment was cut short when a yell was heard coming from downstairs on the first floor.

She whipped her head to the door, stopping what she was doing for a quick second. Her brain immediately went into red alert mode. "_Sounded like_..." The thought started. "Bobby," she finished the rest aloud. "Bobby?" She grabbed both books and high-tailed it out of the room, stumbling over a few times on the way out. Flying down the ladder from the attic, through the winding hallway past the bedroom doors, "Bobby?!" and stopped right at the landing of the stairs leading to the first floor. "Bobby? Are you okay? What's going on?" Alissa asked slightly out of breath as she grabbed onto the railing of the stairs carefully walking down the noisy, wooden steps while many scenarios were playing in her mind; the majority weren't the 'best case' ones either.

The man in question stood at the bottom against the wall with a hand on the wooden banister in a relaxed stance and a smile on his face, looking up to Alissa. He was happy about something. Just what that was, she didn't quite know. Her mind was still on high alert but when she looked at Bobby, she finally eased. He jerked his head in the direction of the living room, giving a vague response to her quizzical look on her face, "Seems like you got some company."

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_**A/N: I hope you have enjoyed this little intro into Second Ascension. This is the third time ince creating this story that this chapter has been re-written and I promise that this is the final time that this will happen. I promise you. I will not be rewriting all the chapters but some of them will be reworked.**_

_**Who are those two guys from the beginning? Guess you'll have to stay tuned.  
See you guys next upload!  
~Cobalt**_


	2. Chapter 2-Black Snake

_**Second Ascension  
**__by CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 2/Black Snake  
"_Snakes hide in grass, people behind their lies._"  
~Nopain

"Yep, it's me," she stated with an acknowledging smile on her face as she brought her arms up and crossed them over her chest, making sure a white cloth that was wrapped around her right hand was clearly seen. Alissa was about to walk over and give her friend a hug but hesitated once her eyes glanced down to the cloth, eyeing it suspiciously to which Alyse seemed to pick up on, "Don't worry, Bobby did all the tests. I'm all good."

Alissa waited one more moment, making her final decision. It must have gone through because in the next second, she was by the door giving a large hug that almost toppled Alyse over in the process, "So good to see you again!" she greeted, rocking them side to side until she finally let go, pulling away. "C'mon in, c'mon in," Alissa invited her to the living room.

Alyse laughed and nodded in agreement, trying to steady herself. She could say that she definitely didn't miss Alissa's hugs, but the gesture was nice. "Same here!" she replied, matching her friend's excitement. "It's been, what, six or seven years now?" She asked while walking to the rustic colored couch, plopping down to take a load off since it's been a long drive for her up here and she tried to not let a blank expression show through as it was becoming a habit nowadays, which she's been doing her best to fix the problem.

"It was something like that. Wow," Alissa paused. "Just can't really wrap my head around it. Time sure does fly I guess," she hasn't seen her or any of her other friends since High school graduation and no one really talked to one another afterwards either. Maybe that was because everyone saw each other so often five days out of the week. People seemed to change the very moment graduation ended and everyone was on their way to do whatever they so pleased whether it was in nursing or computer engineering, or even a hunter. Sure it wasn't the best paying job, if there was a pay at all, but it was still a job. Alyse went off to college with an art degree along with her boyfriend Scott and the last Alissa heard, something bad had happened so they both had to quit school, going back on the full hunting job again since it was also hard juggling college and cases. Whatever went down, it wasn't pretty. Alissa took the other woman's lead, taking a seat on the opposite side, towards the kitchen. Even though she was happy to see her friend again, questions started forming as to why she stopped by here of all places? It was definitely out of the way from town. It might make sense since hunters are always coming and going, dropping information that they picked up on all sorts of cases that could be used later on. Who knows, right? She decided to stow those questions away for the time being and looked back towards the stairs only to see that Bobby was nowhere to be seen. "_He's probably in the kitchen grabbing beers,_" she thought to herself and brought her attention back to Alyse. "So? How're you and Scott doing?" Alissa asked.

At the mention of new name, a genuine smile spread on Alyse's face. "We've been really well," She started to say until Bobby came back with what Alissa had expected: beer; three to be exact, and if someone wasn't the beer or whiskey drinker, they would be out of luck since that was really all Bobby had in the house. He walked over, handed their respective bottles, turned around, and went to go sit in the wooden chair at his old, wooden desk while the two women continued chatting. "Scott's at a motel a couple towns over working on a case. I believe it was just a regular salt-and-burn, ghost haunting kind of case, no big deal. So while he was working on that, I decided to drop by and say 'hey'," she then decided to open up her beer, taking a swig while looking around the room to get the gist of it all. "Everything's been kinda crazy lately. Demons are popping up more and more, no one seems to know why either," right then, Bobby's interest had piqued; now he was listening intently to the conversation, while trying not to show it. "Just the other day we ran into some and they kept spouting some nonsense about how their boss was going to promote them if they found 'her', whoever that is," she took another swallow of her beer and looked out the window in back of them a second, then to Alissa. "Overall, we've been pretty good. Scott's getting better with the whole monsters and hunting stuff and nothing has gone wrong _yet_."

"I kept hearing from other hunters that called in saying that they were seeing more demons popping up too. It just seems really odd," Alissa agreed as she fiddled with the beer bottle in her hands absentmindedly. "I don't know, but that's really cool that Scott's getting better though," the compliment passes through the space. "It's not an easy thing to deal with," she finalizes as she remembers the phone conversation between her and Alyse about what happened. Scott wasn't in the hunting scene when he and Alyse had started dating in her senior year of high school, so she had to keep everything a secret and it wasn't until her sophomore year of college when the cover was finally pulled back. Scott seemed to take the whole "Monsters are real" conversation pretty well, but it also had more of an impact because both of them were there when that 'something bad' took place.

_**The noise of a sharpening blade was heard in the living room of the single floor house that was gently illuminated by the small lamp table next to a large and leather EZ chair that sat towards the door, facing in the direction of the dining room. Dark hardwood lined the floor while white and rich cream colors the walls and crown molding. The room wasn't overly large, but it was big enough to fit at least five to seven people, a forty inch, LED TV hanging on a wall, a black leather loveseat and a matching three seat couch on the opposite side, comfortably. They decided to move in together in this house they rented instead of moving into the dorm rooms since surprisingly, the rent was far cheaper and it was farther away from the excess noise of the university they were both attending. Alyse sat in the EZ chair with her hair put up in a messy bun wearing a black, flowing tank to with her arms resting on her faded, dark green jeans and black, knee high boots on the floor sharpening her favorite**_ _**Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife while Scott was in town running a few errands. This was her moment of peace (no matter how long or short it was) doing this unusual task which always seemed to calm her down one way or another. Was it motions of sharpening it or the sound it made? She never really knew. A creaking from the door in the kitchen made her freeze completely. Looking up at the little clock above the TV made her brows knit and face twist in confusion. Slowly she got out of the chair, careful not to make a sound, while sticking the dagger into her jeans' back pocket and pulling the back of her shirt over it over to keep it concealed. "Scott?" Alyse spoke out, waiting a couple seconds before talking again. "That was pretty quick," Alyse commented. "I though you would be gone longer."**_

_** Slowly she walked into the dining room and around the corner; she stopped dead in her tracks as a woman sat in the middle of the modern, stainless steel kitchen. She sat back contently, leaning back on her hands, upon the little island dead center of the room. Her naturally red, wavy hair stood out against her white skin, framing her rounded face with a smattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose and under her eyes as it rested comfortably on her shoulders. A smoky gray, snuggly fit blouse that reached down to her hips, covered her upper body while black jeans and matching flats covered her crossed legs. The atmosphere in the room was tense but skyrocketed when the woman's bright hazel eyes flipped into pitch black holes. "I guess I got a few things done a little bit earlier than I expected," she answered with a crooked smile playing on her lips and sweet honey laced in her voice.**_

_** Alyse hesitated for a moment and discreetly pulled out the stashed away dagger as her facial expression changed to stone-faced despite overall being nervous, which she seemed to hide pretty well. "What's a demon doing here?" She demanded.**_

_** "Wouldn't you like to know," the other woman started as she moved her hands to wrap around her highest places knee. "I mean if you're that clueless," her ink filled eyes washed away in favor to her hazel ones just for the emphasis to roll them in a snarky attitude. "Don't think it would hurt to take a wild guess would it? I'll give you one chance," she offered.**_

_** "Just tell me,' Alyse spat. "I hate guessing games," a shift of weight on her feet occurred carefully while gripping the handle of the blade tighter. "**__I can't do that again…__**" she thought to herself.**_

_** With the flick of the demon's wrist, the dagger flies out of Alyse's hand and clatters against the hard wood floor behind them. The demon hopped down gracefully off the small island and lunged at her, sending them to a nearby wall with a claw-like hand wrapped around Alyse's throat. She did her best to escape the hold but it was useless for every time she would move or struggle, the demon would add pressure to the hold just enough to keep her in place. Alyse then got the idea that if she could break free by force then this would be the next best option. "Exorcizamus te, Omnis immuni-" The hand quickly pressed harder into her neck, cutting her off short.**_

_** "Oh no, you don't, such language for such a pretty face," a fake smile crept along the demon's lips, cocking her head to the side. "Now then, if you're going to cooperate with me-and I know you will, tell me where she is!" She commanded as the smile hurriedly left for a sneer.**_

_** "W-Who is that?" Alyse croaked out from the pressure on the windpipe. She was slightly surprised that she wasn't becoming dizzy yet. "**__She likes to play with her food. Oh fantastic__**," she thought to herself as confusion and slight fear were written on her face.**_

_** The smile reappeared for a moment but faded into something of displeasure. "Really now? Playing innocent I see. Well, that might work for some people with that wonderful face, but don't forget, I'm not most people," The woman stated. "Sources tell me that you were the last one to come in contact with her," that same, fake smile returned to her face. "I'm going to ask you one more time, no more playing around here. Where is she, the one with the Angel's grace?" She inquired hastily.**_

_** A puzzled look made its way onto Alyse's face, "A-Angels?" She managed to say while trying to break hold of the woman's grip still holding firm on her neck. "There's... No such... Thing..."**_

_** The sound of plastic bags filled with groceries dropping on the wood floor unexpectedly cut off the tension in the room. The demon turned her head to see who had entered the dispute. "Alyse?" Wide blue eyes that were shocked to the core belonged to a man with a slight tanned complexion, square shaped face, short dark brown, spiky, hair. He wore a gray T-shirt and faded blue jeans over his lean and somewhat muscular, five foot eight build. He stood frozen at the sight before him, not entirely sure what to do.**_

_** The demon smiled curiously at him. "Now who do we have here?" She started to say, glancing back to Alyse then to the newcomer. "A new buddy to chum around with?"**_

_** "Scott!" Alyse tried to yell but her throat was itchy and on fire, making it hard to do so. The man-Scott-took a mini step closer to the both of them even though he was scared out of his mind, he tried not to show it.**_

_** "Well now Scotty," She drawled out. "It seems I didn't properly introduce myself properly, my name's Aliyah." Her smile showed innocence but it was far from the truth. Her eyes filled with inky blackness once again.**_

_** This was the perfect opportunity for a strike and Alyse wasted no time. She brought her legs up the wall and put them in front of her, ready to kick. With her hands she grabbed hold of Aliyah's forearms to keep herself from adding more pressure to her throat in case what she was about to do didn't go like she intentionally planned.**_

_** "What's the matter now Scott? You seem to be shaking in your boots," Aliyah pestered Scott who was still stuck in his tracks. Normally, he would dive right in but there was something about Aliyah that felt very off to him. "I'm not that scary am I?" Aliyah asked with high raised brows as if to show real concern.**_

"_**Yeah, I'd say you're real scary. Downright ugly," Alyse mumbled and in one swift motion, she kicked her captor square in the chest which made a sickening crunch as her heels made contact. The hand released its grip on her throat as she fell to the floor. Aliyah stumbled back from the blow, landing on the floor, trying to breathe.**_

_** In the meantime, Scott rushed over to Alyse's side not even worrying if the woman on the floor was alive or not. "Alyse!" He crouched down next to her, grabbed her arms and pulled her up close to him, "Are you okay?" Scott asked her with worry in his light voice. Nodding in confirmation, she put a hand lightly to her throat and rubbed carefully to help soothe it. They both looked down to Aliyah who was still lying on the hardwood floor by the kitchen. "We should call an ambulance or something! She's really hurt!" Scott exclaimed in concern and fright as he walked quickly to her body lying motionless. He put two fingers on her neck to see if she had a pulse. "Okay, she's got a pulse,' He let out a sigh of relief and looked up to Alyse, 'She's out cold though."**_

_** "Okay,' she coughed through her response, still trying to talk after that little predicament, "Go grab a chair and some rope or twine, just something to hold her down. Hurry up or she might wake up. Now's the chance to send her back to Hell," before she got a response out of Scott, Alyse walked off to the bedrooms on the other side of the house to grab her journal. It held very important words written to send that demon packing.**_

_** When Alyse came back into the room, Aliyah's limp form was sitting in an arm-rest chair. Scott sat on the couch, trying to figure out what the hell happened not more than ten minutes ago. "Where's the rope to tie her down?" Alyse asked him curiously. She was slightly on edge and it was only a matter of time before Aliyah woke and there would be consequences on the way.**_

_** Scott whipped his head around and gave her the most shocking stare. "Are you out of your mind?!" He raised his voice, not quite to a yell but it was close, "She should be on the way to a hospital, not tied up to a chair like a hostage to a serial killer!" He got up off the couch striding over to her with nothing but anger resonating off of him, "My god Alyse, I thought you would know this! It's pretty freaking common sense!" He then briskly walked back to the kitchen to get the phone and dial an ambulance.**_

_** She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself before this turned into an argument that they would both later regret and now wasn't the time for this to arise. "I do know that! One thing you don't is that there is a demon inside of her and we need to exorcise it before it wakes up to more bullshit we don't need," a huff of air escaped her burning throat. "Now, whether you help me or not, that Demon bitch it going right straight to Hell," she walked past him, to the garage, grabbed some rope. "**__Hopefully she'll stay there,"__** the thought passed through her mind as she came back to her spot and started to tie Aliyah's limbs to the chair.**_

_** "How do you know if there's a demon in her or not? How do you know for sure?" he asked a little angry, still holding the phone in his hand. He wants to help her but in the back of his brain he wants to take the unconscious woman to a hospital. It took a few moments before he finally reached a decision to buckle down and help Alyse get rid of this monster, 'demon', as she put it. He stuck the phone back on the receiver and strode over to her side.**_

_** "You can always tell by the eyes. Demons have inky black eyes as you unfortunately found out," she glanced over to him and back to the bindings to make sure that there were secure. "If you're wondering how you can tell if someone is a demon or not, there's a Latin word that they always flinch at. Before I say anything else, let's move her over to that rug by the couch," Scott walks over to the said rug and moves it out of the way, revealing a large reddish symbol consisting of a circle with a star in the center and in between each point was another symbol, almost like squiggles and crosses.**_

_** "What in the hell is that?" He asks pointing to the said symbol on the floor. The next thought running through is head was "**__Oh she must be utterly insane. I'm dating an insane woman.__**" but he quickly shoved it out of the way to get back to the task at hand, even though he was still trying his best to understand everything going on.**_

_** "That, m'dear, is a Devil's Trap. It keeps the demon trapped inside. The only way they can get out is if the trap is broken or part of the lines were scraped away,' she glances down at Aliyah to make sure that she was still out cold. Her gaze was brought back up to him. "Let's get 'Aliyah' over that trap before she figures out what's going on," Scott nods in response and returns to the other side of the chair. In one fluid motion, they both pick her up and put her dead center in the trap.**_

_** "Okay so since she's in there, how do we get rid of the demon?" He was very curious to all of this new information. He wasn't quite sure how to really take it, it was only after a while when he finally gave in.**_

_** To answer his question, she held up an old leather book. A journal of sorts, holding many loose pages scattered here and there but more importantly it had the incantation they needed. "In here. There's a Latin incantation, or an exorcism, that you have to recite and down they fall," a smile grew onto her face as she opened the journal to that specific page. "If you don't mind, go into our room, there's a duffel bag in the top part of the closet," Alyse pointed in the general direction of said room and continued speaking. "In that bag there's some bottles of Holy water and salt. Can you grab them for me?" Without another word, he trots off to grab the needed supplies.**_

_** A small groan was heard coming from the woman in the chair as her head started to rise and loll to the side, slowly waking up. "Well, look who's decided to finally join us," Alyse spoke sweetly and boy was she happy that payback was on its way.**_

_** Another groan slid out as Aliyah was finally wide awake and alert. "You bitch," it was all that she could muster up before Scott came back into the room with the said supplies.**_

_** "Thank you," gratefully she took them and set them next to the journal that was on the coffee table behind them. "Now why don't we send this puppy home, shall we?" Alyse's smile grew wider. "**__Finally sending her back. Good riddance," __**the thought passed through her brain.**_

_** "You wouldn't dare," The demon spoke with a glower on her face.**_

_** "Try us," Alyse paused for a moment. "Christo," was all she replied with before grabbing the bottles of holy water, Aliyah then flinched at the Latin word used as Alyse began pouring the contents onto her. Aliyah's screams were loud and shrieking as if they were killing her. The screams finally settled as the water was emptied out of the containers. This wasn't even close to the torture Aliyah received in Hell but it still hurt her. Alyse turned around and grabbed the journal, still a smile plastered on her lips. "Now's the fun part," she turned back and stood right in front of the soaked demon, the journal handed over to Scott. "Read the words I say them, okay Scott?" He quickly nodded and looked down, ready to go.**_

_** "Any last words for you? Gotta give you that much," she asked her sweetly with her head turned to the side.**_

_** "Fuck. You," was Aliyah's last response out of breath and shaking, a death glare etched on her face.**_

_** "Well, isn't that just colorful," Alyse paused for a moment, turned her head over to Scott and returned to the demon. She backed out of the trap then started to recite the incantation.**_

**"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus,**

** Omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii,**

** Omnis congregatio ET secta diabolica.**

** Ergo, Draco maledicte.**

** Ecclesiam tuam securi tibi facias libertate servire,**

** Te rogamus, audi nos."**

_** At the final word spoken, as if on cue, black smoke shot out of the vessel's mouth, crowding around her feet like fog, and dissolved away with a fiery burn. She ran over to the woman to see if she was alive. Her pulse was nowhere to be found. Her head sunk low, letting out a long sigh. "Damn."**_

_** "What's wrong? Is she okay? Is the demon gone?" Scott's voice was layered in hesitation and worry.**_

_** "She's gone. Aliyah must've killed the poor woman here and used her as a vessel. It was too late to save her. The demon's gone though so you don't have to worry about that anymore," Alyse grabbed a knife off the coffee table and started to cut the bindings holding Jane Doe to the chair. Scott also walks over to help her, to make it go by a little faster. They-mainly Alyse since she knew more about this than he did-decided to give the woman a hunter's funeral. He wanted to give the woman some sort of peace after death. After everything was said and done, Scott made his decision to learn all that there was to learn about the supernatural. She was more than surprised but also happy to know since that could make things easier for the both of them and not having to keep anymore secrets. It helped them grow closer together as they took on cases. It took some time and within a few years he was a natural hunter, or so it seemed anyway. The learning curve is generally high in this field and you need to be a quick learner when you're out on the job. This might be the thing that kills you, both figuratively and literally speaking.**_

"So, how've you been since you're stuck here and all?" Those words broke Alissa out of her thoughts. Alyse's question was innocent after all.

Alissa looked over to her sidelong with a raised eyebrow, not missing a beat in response. "No, I haven't been **stuck **here. I've had plenty of cases that got me out in the field. Don't know what you'rereferring to," Alissa knew well enough that it was just her teasing.

Alyse's smile was small but was also holding back a chuckle or two. "Yeah, _okay_," Alissa shuffled a little on the couch she sat on and decided then to open her bottle, taking a quick sip. Alyse then turned to Bobby who was still sitting at his desk taking notes. "So Bobby, How've you been holding up?"

He too took a long gulp from his beverage, glancing between the two girls and finally spoke. "Doin' okay, I suppose. This smart ass over here," he pointed his index finger to Alissa with a grin, "keeps me on my toes. Most times," they all chuckled lightly. It was all in good heart, no harm done.

Over the next four to five hours they chatted over the hunts and cases that came and went. A few ghosts here, a vampire there and even some Wendigo joined in the conversations. The most common creature was always demons. They were starting to become a regular thing. Something wasn't making sense. Why are they appearing so often? Why now?

Time seemed to fly right by as it was close to being dark. Alissa looked out the window in front of her to see wonderful red and pink sunset. It cast a warm glow on everything in the room. She was lost to her thoughts until her friend spoke, breaking the trance. "Hey, It's getting late," she got up off the couch making her way to the stairs by the door. "I also have a ten hour drive ahead of me," Alyse stretched for a couple seconds as she turned around to face Alissa and Bobby who were now out of their spots heading towards her.

"You can always stay here for the night, y'know," Alissa crossed her arms across her chest as she leaned against the wall corner by the living room.

Alyse looked between the two in front of her again, landing her gaze on Bobby before asking him for permission. "Bobby, you sure?"

A light huff was exhaled before he nodded his head in confirmation. "Sure, I don't see why not."

A small grin appeared on Alyse's face, she flipped her gaze over to Alissa and back to Bobby. "Well, let me go grab my stuff since it's in the back of my car," she pointed her thumb in back of her at the door.

Alissa pushed off the side of the wall, gave a side-long look back at Bobby, "I'll help her with the stuff. We'll be right back," she told him, and out the door she went.

Walking along the back of Singer Salvage yard, the sound of crunching gravel and crickets chirping among the grass and weeds filled the quiet and warm summer air. The atmosphere wasn't tense in the slightest; just right to fall asleep comfortably. Stars were making their appearances as the sun continued to dip below the horizon. The yard light over top the garage hummed to life, its light become brighter with each passing second. The women's' gait slowed to a stop as they took in the area around them. This was something you would rarely see back home. Even though there was open farmland, Sioux Falls was a lot wider with less city lights and trees blocking your view from the twinkling lights in the vast night sky.

"Why did you come here instead of going up to your grandma's place?" Alyse questioned her, breaking the wonderful silence. She took a quick gulp of her beverage, then continued. It was a difficult subject to talk about, but she wanted answers. "You'd be closer to your family versus being all the way out here, in the middle of nowhere," she commented. "I just don't get it," muttering to herself, thinking that Alissa didn't hear her. Only, she did. Loud and clear.

"_Yeah, that's the thing. You don't_," Alissa thought to herself. "_Never will either_," she too took a drink from her beer, instead of a quick sip, it was a long pull. She didn't want to think of those memories again for it was too painful, even after it being close to decade later, it still hurt.

The finally make it to Alyse's car, despite wanting to enjoy the evening air. A bright, cherry red, Mazda Six sat by the garage in its fiery glory from the now set sun, but the light from it danced along the clouds above. While Alyse grabbed her suitcase from the back, Alissa walked a couple feet towards the large space of rows upon rows of cars. She took a deep breath, releasing it slowly out of her nose as she watched the remaining light fade away. "I guess I wanted to get away," turning her gaze to the glorious sky Milky Way Galaxy above. It was hard to see due to the now overly bright yard light, but it was still there regardless. "Start fresh. Plus, didn't want those demons after me again after what happened..." trailing off, "_last time_," finishing the sentence in her head as a soft, cool breeze blew by, letting it push those unwanted occupant thoughts from her brain. It only seemed to last for a couple seconds as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Out of the corner of her eye, a shadow whizzed through the arrays of cars, sending a shiver down her spine and a wave of uneasiness. Ever so carefully, Alissa reached behind her and fished for the weapon stashed at the small of her back, in between the elastic waistband of her short and underwear; a long, silver, thin blade with cylindrical hilt. She kept the blade tight by her side as she walked nonchalantly back to her friend, her hunter's instincts kicking in. Nudging Alyse's arm with her elbow, she whispered, tying not to cause suspicion to the enemy. "Hey. Head's up. We got some friends."

With a small nod, Alyse went back to grabbing her things. Slinging a dark brown duffel over her shoulder, shutting the car door, they then walked to Bobby's like everything was fine. Until she heard a shuffle in the gravel and a high pitched yelp. Dropping the bag to the ground, spinning on her heels, grabbing the dagger from her thigh holster in the process. Alissa was pinned to the ground by a large man and by the time Alyse got a good look at the figure, she was got off guard, tackled to the gravel. She quickly rolled with it until she was the one on top. Taking her dagger, she stabbed the thing square in the chest. With a hard grunt, they rolled over again and without wasting another second, she kicked the blade further into the chest, causing it to stumble back, falling to the ground, dead. She sat there a second to catch her breath and to pull the weapon out of the body as it flashed an orange skeleton under its skin. "Alissa!"

Grunts and groans of struggle were heard as Alissa wrestled with her captor. Finally punching the guy off, stabbing him right in the heart as he reeled back, his eyes filled with inky blackness. Alyse arriving right at that specific moment. "Demons," Alissa commented, breathing a little hard. "I'm sure there's more where that came from."

Picking up all what was needed, they started again towards the house but did not get very far as a honeyed voice sounded behind them, causing the two women to stand still. "Oh, how right you are."

Simultaneously turning around, the face the new voice. Standing directly under the yard light was another woman with a hand placed on her hip, bright sea green eyes that faded to black then back again. Her hair was a deepened red, curls resting comfortably on her shoulders with sweeping bangs to her right side. Her face was pale with bright, rosy cheeks on her oval shaped features. A dark brown, crop leather jacket, white billowy shirt, fade blue jeans and black hiking boots covered her slender form. "Who the **hell** are you?" Alissa demanded, keeping her weapon at the ready in case this turned out south. Which was a high possibility.

"Why don't you ask your friend there," the woman replied, jerking her head to Alyse. A smile tugged on her lips. "She knows."

Alissa turned her head to her friend, a puzzled look on her face. "Alyse?"

"Mm. Nope," Alyse shook her head but stopped short, squinting her eyes and then opening them up wide in realization. "Wait," she took a mini step back. "I sent you back to Hell. How are you..?"

"Who?" Alissa asked, flicking her gaze between the two people.

Without moving her head, eyes set straight forward, she simply responded, "Aliyah."

Alissa's eyes widened in shock, turning her gaze to the woman now named 'Aliyah.' Her smile dwindled to a smirk as seven more demons came in behind her. A small nod gave the signal to charge, the battle has started. Aliyah then decided it would be the best time to have a conversation among the scuttle. "It wasn't easy. Had to fight my way out and finally made it to this 'wonderful' place," she walked over to a rusted car. Leaning back, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Now I'm sure you're wondering why I'm at this dump in the first place. Well, I ended up following your little buddy, Alyse, here with a small enchanted coin. Oh look! Here we are!"

Alissa gripped her silver blade, flipping it so it's facing up, she started slashing at the demon brute in front of her. The blade made contact with one of its arms, causing a large gash and a hiss of pain from the demon as he faltered. "Why're you here then?" she asked Aliyah just as two more demons came up to surround her. She's able to take three to one. It hasn't been the first and certainly will not be the last time. All it is, is redundant. "_Damn. Welp, here we go._"

Aliyah brought her hand up to inspect her nails while the fight continued. "Needed to find Miss Grace," she stated.

Strong arms wrapped around Alissa's middle, pinning her arms to the sides as she was being lifted off the ground. Right on instinct, she lifted her legs to her chest and kicked back where her heels made contact with the grunt's groin. He doubled over, dropping her on the way down where she landed on the gravel and quickly recovered. She swiveled around to the his back, blade still in hand, she slashed diagonally across, a skeleton flashing in orange and yellow let her knew that the deed was done. Swinging around as another demon came up to her, she followed with raising her leg into a roundhouse kick, making its mark on the grunt's jaw, sending it to the ground. Alissa was only happy for a second when one more demon tackled her to the ground. Punches were thrown on both ends as they rolled around in the driveway, causing cuts, scrapes, and bruises. "What does **that** mean?" Alissa questioned in between trying to shove the guy off and stabbing him.

"Oh, you don't know?" Aliyah responded wittily as she continued to examine her fire truck red, painted nails.

One swift kick to the stomach sent the grunt on its back which gave Alissa the chance to jump up, take her dropped blade, and stab the thing right in the shoulder, killing it instantly. Spinning on her heels while pulling the blade out, she face Aliyah with an expression of irritation clearly written on her face. "Haven't been conversing with demons lately since they're too busy killing people and everything. So, care to fill me in, or are you going to play spectator?"

The smile never falter as a yell echoes through the air. Whirling her head around to see what was happening, Alissa saw Alyse was being held against a door of an old Chevy truck, sporting a gash down her left arm and a hand wrapped around her throat from the demon looming over her as two demons lay dead on the ground. "Alyse!" It was all that was yelled before a pain erupted at the back of her head, her vision faded to black and the only sound, that she thought, she heard was that of flapping bird wings against fabric.

When she finally came to, her head wasn't throbbing as much as she expected; ended up like a small headache than anything else, moving from the back of the head to the front. Slowly getting up from the gravel below, using a nearby car for support, she starts walking. Just up ahead, she spots her friend who appears to have all of her injuries gone. What? How? Wait, who's that with her? Alissa couldn't quite tell since the yard light was too bright for her bleary vision to get an accurate portrayal. The sun had already dipped way below the horizon and based on how dark it was already, she would have to say it was close to midnight or shortly after. Which didn't help matters any. Seriously, who is that guy? Another demon? Very well could be since there were two demons left, including Aliyah. Speaking of which, where'd she run off to? She shook those thoughts from her brain and focused on what was in front of her.

"Alyse? You okay over there?" Alissa questioned, raising her voice so she could be heard. The looming figure glanced back to see her hanging onto a car for support. In the blink of an eye, he was gone with the sound of flapping wings made know of his departure. She quickly jogged over to her after making sure she wasn't seeing things and if the coast was clear. Quickly helping her up, she asked one more time. "You doing alright?"

A short nod Alyse's immediate response. "Yeah," she breathed out. "Let's get inside before anymoredemons show up," Alissa grabbed the dropped duffel, slinging it over her shoulder while picking up the weapons as Alyse got to her feet. "_Why the hell is Aliyah here? Why now?" _Alyse thought to herself._ "It's been six years..."_

When Alissa turned back around, in the corner of her eye, she saw a light blue glow but by the time she flipped her head to scan in that direction, it was gone. A frown settled on her face, searching the surrounding area. "_Wonder who took out the other demons?_" The thought passes through her mind. "_Could it have been Alyse? Wait. No. She as dealing with her own. Odd,_" Shaking it out, they continued to the house. "Sorry we took so long," Alissa shouted through the door. "Apparently we had some demons jump use. No big deal though. Not like we needed help or anything," after the short silence, a loud snore reverberated coming from an asleep Bobby who was sprawled in his reclining chair.

"Damn. He could sleep through a tornado," Alyse commented. Alissa handed her respected gear as Alyse went up the stairs to the guest bedroom. Alissa could take the couch for the night. She preferred the couch over a bed anyways. They both said their 'goodnight's and turned in for the rest of evening, or so that was planned. Alyse sat up in the guest room's bed, not ready to go to sleep just yet since she had one more thing to do. Shifting her body over to the left side, she grabbed her iPhone off the bedside table and unlocked it. She tapped onto the iMessage logo, entered a number into the "To:" box, and starting typing in the "Message" rectangle. She stopped a moment later to reread over everything and once she was satisfied with what was there she hit send, and exited out of the app. While locking the phone, she set it back on the table and settled in for the rest of the night.

The soft yellow glow of the rising sun filtered through the windows. Alissa's eyes fluttered open. She just wanted to lay there and enjoy the comfortable space. "_Better get up now before I get yelled at for sleeping in,_"she thought as she flipped her legs over the side of the couch, touching the floor while sitting up and stretched; relaxing her muscles with a satisfying grunt added to it.

_ "_Mornin_'," _Bobby's gruff voice spoke in a not so cheerful manner. He sat at the table with a cup of coffee and a newspaper in hand.

"Mornin'," Alissa replies somewhat groggy as she made her way into the kitchen, still wearing the clothes from the day prior.

A minute of silence passed before he spoke up. "Went out looking for you guys last night. Thought someone or something snagged ya. I came back in here and I found you guys passed out in your beds," He takes a gulp of coffee.

Tapping her fingers on the top of the refrigerator door contemplating on food, Alissa decided to make a quick sandwich. She grabbed what she needed, closed the door and headed to the counter. "Sorry about that Bobby. We went to go grab Alyse's stuff the next thing we knew Aliyah and her goons jumped us. After that little brawl, we hurried back in here and found that you were snoring away in your chair. Didn't decide to wake you, so we turned in for the night."

He put the newspaper down and looked at her is disbelief. "Aliyah. You mean that demon Alyse ganked five years ago? How the hell did she get here, thought Alyse said that she was dead?"

"Well she's not. I'm guessing Alyse only sent her back down under and Aliyah managed to crawl out, finding a replacement vessel. She also said something about a little coin or whatever that they pinned to Alyse. I don't know. I'm just as shocked as you are that she's back." She added, continuing to make her sandwich.

"Did she say anything about what she wanted?" Bobby asked while taking another drink of his coffee.

Before Alissa got the chance to say anything more, Alyse walked in, making a bee line straight to the coffee maker, pouring herself a cup. "Morning guys."

"Mornin'," Alissa and Bobby said in unison. She wore a baby blue tank top, blue jeans, her usual black boots with her hair was in a low ponytail.

"Sorry to drink and run Bobby but I got a **long** drive. Once I'm done with this, I'm heading off." Alyse spoke up after downing her freshly poured cup.

"Well if you gotta run, I ain't stoppin' ya. If you're ever in trouble, don't hesitate to call me." Bobby replied as he got up from his seat to put his cup in the sink.

Mirroring Bobby's action, Alyse put her cup on the counter instead, walked out of the kitchen to the banister where her duffel was sitting on the steps of the stairs. Alissa and Bobby followed right behind, ready to send her off.

Alissa gave her a quick hug. Pulling back, she grinned, "Take care, okay? It was nice seeing you again. Even for only a little bit."

"I will. It was nice to see you too," was Alyse's only response.

Bobby came up next to give her one final hug before she took off. Out the door Alyse went, duffel over her shoulder, to the Mazda Six. Opening one of the doors she threw her duffel to the back as she got in. Firing up the engine, she backed up and out, leaving the Salvage Yard with a toot of the horn and dust in the wind.

Watching the car pull away for a moment, they walk back into the house, Bobby then stopped and asked. "Aliyah, what'd she want?"

Letting out a huff of air, Alissa turned to face him. "Who knows really? She said something about finding 'Miss Grace' or some bull like that. I don't know. She's a demon after all, always wanting to start a bunch of shit."

"I suppose so," he answered, almost as if he wasn't convinced of something. '_Somethin's not addin' up here…_" He thought to himself before he sat down in his recliner mulling over the new details while Alissa went back into the kitchen to grab her sandwich and walked back out to go sit on the couch.

* * *

_**A/N: And here we have three more characters introduced; Alyse, Aliyah, and Scott! I hope you enjoy this chapter since I finally have it redone like the first chapter was. I also hope that this chapter wasn't too long for ya. There might be some really long ones to come. I know there's one where it's 10,000 words. Yeah, no kidding. Anyway! I shall see you guys next upload, okay?  
~Cobalt**_


	3. Chapter 3-The First Move

_**A/N: There is usage of the "F-bomb" in this chapter**_

* * *

_**Second Ascension**_  
by _CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 3/The First Move

"_Life always begins with one step outside of your comfort zone._"  
~Shannon L. Alder

It was about two weeks (give or take a couple days) after Alyse stopped for a visit and life at the Singer house ran its operations like normal; answering phones in case any possible hunters were stuck, needed recommendations, customers dropping by in the Salvage Yard looking for car parts for restorations or just needed a quick fix. Whether it is answering calls or being out in the garage, there were some breaks in between which Alissa would use to their full advantage, switching from being online researching jobs and looking on lore, to drawing, reading her favorite books, even taking a nap or two. It wasn't the most _fun_ job in the world to do but it was something to past the time when she wasn't out hunting. Sitting on the old rustic couch of the living room, she had her laptop out searching and checking to see if there were any new cases that might have come up.

_I feel my wings have broken in your hands  
I feel the words unspoken inside  
and, they pull you under  
And, I will give you anything you want, oh  
you are all I wanted  
all my dreams are fallen down  
Crawlin' around and around and around_

The _Remy Zero_ song filled the silence of the room while she browsed the web, taking a break from cleaning the house (just enough to where Bobby wouldn't have a hissy fit saying that everything was moved and not where he had originally put it) and helping out the garage for most of the day. It was an abnormally slow day, so she happened to get quite a bit done than what she would usually accomplish.

_Somebody save me  
let your warm hands break right through it  
somebody save me  
I don't care how you do it, just stay, stay  
C'mon, I've been waiting for you_

Her eyes started to droop slowly signifying her lack of the right amount of sleep. She was up most of the night due checking to see if she might have missed any jobs the last time she searched. She sat her laptop down on the small table next to the couch, turned down the music to where she could just barely hear it and shuffled around on top the cushions, getting comfortable. Closing her eyes, she let the sound of the songs playing drift her off to sleep. It didn't take long for a dream to come floating in.

_**Bright sunlight shimmered from the luminous blue sky in through the emerald hues from the flittering leaves, down the hickory trunks, to the moss and shamrock shades covering the grounds. The smell of fallen rain hung in the air like a warm, clouding blanket of fog while the distant sounds of birds happily singing away their tunes in this large and wandering forest. The atmosphere had a calming effect that seemed to wash away all the troubles in the world. Crunching leaves and twigs sounded under the footfalls of a woman wearing mid-calf tanned boots, dark wash jeans, and a light blue tank top. Alissa took in her surroundings as they passed and something seemed to be pulling her along like a gravitational force; she tried to fight it, but eventually gave in. It gave her a sense of warmth and relaxation against the cool, breezy air that lead her to a wide open clearing that looked like it went on forever, the other side comprised of a row of great trees just out of reach. The grasses growing tall, wild, and free while the sounds of birds chirping and squawking dwindled until they died out completely, leaving an oddly comfortable quiet with a light and airy aura that people don't experience often. That pull became stronger to where she was moving subconsciously, like an animal moving on instinct. **_

_**She walked until she made her journey to the very center, stopping to a halt as her gaze became fixed on the figure in front of her; someone she's never met but somehow, someway, she knew this person, but that's impossible, right? How could she, if she's never met him before? She didn't know for certain, but her eyes gazed upon him curiously as she drew closer. In the warm glow of the sun, he stood there looking above him basking in the warmness with his arms hanging to his sides inside a ratty, wrinkly, navy sweatshirt with faded white lettering on the front along with a patch on one of the upper sleeves and worn out, faded blue jeans sporting tears and dirt littering the fabric. Just like the clothing her wore, his tanned face and stance was ragged, worn and exhausted. As she drew closer to the man, more details came to light just how unstable he truly was; deep, dark, set–in bags hung under those oceanic blue eyes that were shiny like glass as they focused and unfocused slowly, the way his hands curled into fists then relaxing and back into fists again. He looked ready to break; collapse, if not fully in half from the metaphorical crack he sustained. Even though that was true, a smile rested contently on his chapped, tea rose, lips.**_

_**Taking a couple more steps forward to the ragged man, she felt a sudden nervous lump in her throat when he dropped his head carefully at the sounds of rustling grass and weeds. Her words were caught and she couldn't figure out why, all she could do was stand and stare; it took what seemed like ages before she was able to get anything out. "Who are you?" Just that simple question changed his facial expression to hardened stone after a spilt second of what appeared to be hurt. His eyes blinked away what would be falling tears as they focused in again, pushing those emotions away as he concentrated on the woman in front of him. Alissa immediately felt the need to calm him down; to comfort him; to hug him and make sure that everything would be okay, but with every step she made forward, he took the opposite one back, she then shifted into a jog then a full out run to try to catch up to him, only he was just out of her arm's reach. **_

"_**Wake...Up..." a deep and gravelly voice echoed, through the area around the two, trailing off with a hitch that caused Alissa to slow down to a walk, then fully to a halt. She couldn't be sure but it sounded like it was coming from the man.**_

_**Her expression became confused and concerned. The lump in her throat was returning, so she took the opportunity to speak with him before she lost the ability again. "What..?" was all that she could muster at that moment.**_

"_**Wake Up," the voice was harsher but this time it had a crack in it; like a sob waiting at the surface. Was this voice, or man, trying to convince himself of something? A twisted feeling rounded in her stomach and it was starting to get to her. "No…She can't be-"the voice echoed again, distraught evident. "She can't be gone! NO!" Frightened perfectly described what Alissa was currently feeling right then and there. The sky was darkening to nightfall, stars twinkling overhead and everything turned still for a minute until the sound of ice cracking resounded everywhere. She instantly regretted looking up because across the vast sky was a large, jagged line resembling lightning that was quickly spreading as the cracking sound continued. "WAKE UP," the voice screamed, reverberating through the space. It was explosive and commanding, louder than anything she had ever heard in her entire life and caused her ears to ring.**_ _**That was the final action before the cracking became louder until suddenly the sound of shattering glass and falling stars came crashing down on the two in utter chaos and in the midst of it all, everything overwhelmingly went black.**_

Abruptly she woke with a gasp of air, body rose like a slingshot hitting something, or someone in the process. A split second later she doubled over from the pain in her forehead. Letting out a growl, she sent out a steady stream of air from nose. "Dammit, what the hell?!"

Another voice called out in pained anger that was next to her. "What the fuck was that for?" he barked out gruffly.

Alissa froze before she lifted her head to view where the anger originated from. Despite the pain lingering on her head, a grin spread on her khaki rose colored lips when she darted off the couch to give the voice's owner a tight hug, her face ended up at his lower chest. "Dean, hi!"

Feeling an added weight attached to him, he looked down to see a brunette with her arms wrapped around him. He chuckled and returned the gesture. "Hey Liss," Dean greeted. "Okay, next time, don't rocket off the couch like you did so we bump heads, alright? Shit, that hurt and you got a thick skull," he rubbed his head where the pain still resided.

She pulled back away from him and gave him a look consisting of a raised left eyebrow and a tiny smile. "Yeah, _okay_; says the guy who somehow got the idea to hover over me while I was sleeping. That's your fault, not mine," she accused jokingly.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Unless that was your dastardly plan all along?" he teased her right back.

"'Cause that'd be exactly what I'm doing when I'm asleep," she added sarcastically, rubbing the crusty sleep out of her eyes as she looked by the couch to make sure that her laptop was in the same spot she had stuck it before she drifted off.

"So you finally admit it," Dean commented with a smirk plastered on his face. He wore a dark green, leather jacket on top of a black T-shirt while Levi jeans drooped over his bow shaped legs and dark work boots. Light brown hair covered his head, spiking up and out in the front as leaves filtering through sunlight colored the orbs in his eyes while cream and light tan pasted his skin.

Putting her hands to the sides of her head in fake distress, she added in the matching tone for effect "Oh no! No everything's ruined! Damn you, Dean," she crossed her arms over chest as he walked over and wrapped an arm over her shoulder. Alissa's expression soon changed to blank. "By the way, where's Sam?"

Dean raised his head and looked out the window behind the couch, towards the door and then back down to her. "Out in the back with Bobby I think he said," a mischievous smile then played on her lips and a twinkle appeared in her eyes. "I know that look. Go 'head if you wanna do it. Just make sure you let him know right away or it might turn ugly," he smiled as he let go of her shoulder before he finally added, "don't say I didn't warn though," and they both headed out of the house, towards the garage.

Bobby looked up from the engine block was currently working on at the perfect time to see Alissa sneaking carefully and Dean following behind her. Alissa then put a finger to her lips signaling not to say anything. When Bobby gave her a slight nod, she looked back at Dean, turned back around to look at the giant who just sat a box down from moving it and tore off down the gravel to the youngest Winchester brother. She jumped to hopefully land on his back and to possibly get a piggy back ride. "Sammy!" she yelled gleefully.

The large, whopping six foot four, man was caught off guard by the new weight behind him, pulling him down. The man had straight, dark brown hair that reached just past his ears, bright hazel with a sunflower design around the pupils of his eyes. He wore a Carhartt jacket with a dark blue shirt underneath, old blue jeans and a pair of steel toed boots. It only took him a second to realize who was hanging onto him and wasted no time to hoist her up farther by snaking his arms up underneath her thighs. "Wolfy!" He cheered as he started to spin around. She hasn't heard that nickname in such a long time, or so it seemed anyways; probably since she was around eighteen.

"Okay Sammy, I think you better put her down before both of you get dizzy," Dean said laughing at the sight before him, even Bobby was smiling. It's been too long since both the brothers had something happy happen for once. Neither of them could remember a truly happy moment like this because with a hunting life, bad times were most likely a given; some were significantly worse than other but the jobs still got done no matter what it took. Alissa jumped off Sam's back and received an arm over the shoulder hug that Dean gave her not more than five minutes ago.

After an hour or two of being out in the garage, all four of then headed back inside to settle down and catch up on things. Back to the couch Alissa went, Bobby and Sam in the kitchen, while Dean went to grab something from that black and chrome, nineteen sixty-seven, four door, Chevrolet Impala of his. Alissa grabbed her laptop and opened it. It was a small moment later and a pop up notification appeared on the screen stating that 'Little Chickadee is calling you…' coming from the Skype application she had on her computer. Without a second thought she accepted the call and a new window appeared sowing another familiar face. A woman with blonde hair reaching to her shoulder, bangs parting to the side that would sometimes fall into her chartreuse eyes, framing her rounded face ruby red lips and rested on her the light red V-neck she wore from what Alissa could see from the camera screen. "Yo, what's up Amber?" she greeted her best friend on the other end.

"'Ey bae," the other woman replied, waving a hand in front of the screen. She and Alissa have been friends since middle school and while it didn't start off the best but once they figured out what they had in common, they grew closer with each passing year. She was and still is the go-to person for advice or anything and vice versa. They've had their fights like any friendship would have but when Amber told her that she was a hunter, they seem to be a whole lot closer, especially after that horrible day happened. "How's it goin'?"

"Who're you talking to out there?" Bobby called from the kitchen, grabbing something from one of the cupboards. Sam was out of the room, heading up the stairs.

"It's Amber! Alissa called back loud enough for him to hear her. "She's on Skype right now."

Alissa turned back to the screen and Amber had a curious look on her face. "Was that Bobby?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's him, and his grumpiness-," Alissa started to say.

"I heard that." Bobby interrupted.

"You were meant to," Alissa called back as Amber started laughing. "Anyway," she spoke again. "I'm in Sioux Falls right now."

Out of nowhere, a wandering Dean shuffled over and sat down next to Alissa's left side, closest to the kitchen, making her jump from being startled. "Well hey good lookin', how're you?" he asked Amber, looking at the screen.

"What the shit, Dean?" Alissa complained scooting over to give them both room after he squeezed in next to her. "First off, don't scare me like that and second, you could have gone on the other side of me since there's more room over there."

"I'll remember that for next time, okay?" Dean asked but never go the reply he was looking for because both Amber and Alissa gave him an eye roll while Amber also gave him an 'unbelievable..' look.

"Anyways." Amber too started to say.

"Who the **fuck** are you talking to now?" a man's voice barked out somewhere on Amber's side of the screen, interrupting the conversation, again.

Amber inwardly groaned at the _oh-so-perfect_ timing 'he' somehow had; she absolutely hated it. "It's Alissa," she responded to the voice a bit monotonously and she hoped that neither Alissa nor Dean brought up anything about how she sounded in front of him because the very second the call ends, the third degree and barrage of questions begins and it won't be pretty.

The man must have walked closer to her because the microphone picked up a faint grumbling, "What the hell does she want?" of annoyance by the tone in his voice which Dean and Alissa shared a quick glance between them of concern for Amber; but they never voiced it, which Amber was thankful for. In the next moment, a guy sat down next to her wearing a red-brown shirt and blue jeans. His hair was short and ruddy that matched his chestnut colored eyes and burgundy rims of his large, oval framed glasses. The expression on his place, square shaped face and rosy brown lips was that of botheration until it was wiped away to put on a mask of friendliness as he soon realized he was on web camera. "Uh, hey, Alissa. What's up?" he asked her nonchalantly.

"Hi, Alex," Alissa responded with small uncertainty which she trying to hide it and hoped it was working. "I'm doing okay," Like Alyse, she hasn't seen Alex since High school and the last time she had seen or heard him, he never acted like _this. _Maybe this was the front he put on when he was around Alissa's friends in public? Once those doors to the outside were closed, the mask came off and his true colors spread like a miasma. As she thought before, people change after high school, some for the better, and others for the absolute worse. Her life way back in Michigan, for the most part, was mainly a blur; whether or not that was a good thing, she was didn't know.

"So who's your buddy?" Alex asked her, changing the subject after a short silence.

"_Oh shit, I was too caught up in my thoughts and forgot Dean was here," _she cursed to herself for the mistake. "Alex, this is Dean Winchester," she motions her hand in front of her then points her thumb beside her, to Dean. "Dean, this is Alex Petipaw," she says, moving her hand back to the screen again. "Old classmate and hunter contact."

Alex's eyes widen in shock while his mouth went slack-jawed. "Dean Winchester as in, _**the**_ Dean Winchester? Holy Hell dude!" The other three all gave Alex looks of confusion, not understanding the 'important' moment he seemed to be having.

Dean sat there and blinked a few seconds until he answered him, "You've heard of me?" he was surprised that the guy on the other side of the screen knew who he was. Most of the time it was demons and angels that knew them, not so much other hunters unless their father, John Winchester, was somehow attached in the conversation.

"**Heard** of you?' Who hasn't?" Alex questioned in slight disbelief, "You guys are famous in the hunter's world!" Alex added. "_I forgot about that too..._" Alissa thought to herself. Alex is a hunter and has been since he was probably fourteen or so. His family was never in the hunting business to begin with and that's probably a good thing because who'd want to be in this business anyways? The only good thing is saving or helping people and you can't save everyone, which makes it so much more difficult to do while the rest is pain, loss, and grief.

A vampire going in for the kill was what got Alex so involved into hunting, the lore, the out in the field killing things that don't belong and anything related to it. Alex was walking home one night from staying over at a friend's house when the vampire had caught him off guard. He then took off running to hopefully escape the creature, but it was useless. Just before he was about to be drained, Alex was saved by a nearby hunter who was working on a case at the time, and ever since then Alex was became involved in the supernatural; which was also reinforced by the monster hunter games he was always playing, looking up various lore online, even learning a trick or two of how to kill off different creatures. It certainly came in handy. His mom didn't know that he was doing this until one day, a kitsune, found him and his mother when it broke in and went straight after him. He killed it and had to explain everything to her and from her reluctance to having anything to do with hunting and/or anything with the supernatural; she finally gave in and joined along. And to this day, they still never figured out as to **why** it broke in; it's still a mystery.

Changing the subject, Alissa's face changed to emotionless then to curiousness. "So what's going on, Amber?" Her friend looked to her and her expression shifted into something more serious as Dean sent a glance over at Alissa before looking back to the screen with seriousness also etched on his face.

"Well, the reason I called was not just to say 'Hi'-even though that would awesome since we haven't talked in a while. I call because I found something the other day; a possible case that I thought was interesting, and I think it's worth checking out," Amber stated over the screen.

Alissa furrowed her brows "Okay," she drew out the last part of the word to emphasize her confusion. "What would that be?" Amber cleared her throat inconspicuously and looked over to Dean as if to hint something. Alissa was sent into bewilderment until she followed her friend's line of sight up to Dean, who was leaning back against the cushions. "Hey Dean?" Alissa asked him, as she now understood what Amber was getting at. "Do you wanna to see if Sam or Bobby need any help out in the back or something?" She asked him without trying to be rude.

Dean looked over at Alissa, "Yeah. I suppose," then to Amber and Alex on the screen with a fake smile forming on his face. "It was nice meeting you Alex, and it was nice to see you again Amber," he smiled one more time followed by a nod as he leaned forward, pushing himself off the couch and headed towards the door.

Alissa leans forward with the laptop on her lap as she watches him leave. Once he's finally halfway to the garage, "Myep," she pulls back and starts down at the screen again. "He's gone now. Alright, seriously, what'd you want to show me?"

Amber then turns to Alex, shifting a little in her seat. "Hey Alex, would it be all right if Alissa and I talk alone here? It's kinda a girl thing," Alex looks to Amber then to Alissa, his eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion then nodded his head as he gets up from the couch he and Amber were sitting on and walks out of the frame. "Thank you," she said to him tonelessly.

Alissa didn't say anything until a minute later, making sure that Alex wasn't any place close by, or so she guessed anyways. "So, what'cha got for me?"

Looking back at her friend once again, Amber asks her, "'Kay. Do you remember that supposed 'bear' attack that happened a few years back at your Grandma B's place?" she asked, flipping her hair away from her face while her eyes look back and forth across her screen like she's searching for something.

"Yeah," Alissa drew out the last part of the word for emphasis. "Why?"

A quick couple seconds of silence passes between the two before Amber speaks again. "Well" she dragged the last syllable out as she spoke, "take a look at this," sharing her screen with Alissa over the Skype application, a new window appeared and inside displayed what looked to be a newspaper article that had a picture of a white, single story, house with yellow police tape surrounding it. The windows were broken, the front door was busted down, and a part of the back porch deck at one of the corner's was snapped off, along with the steel railings on the front steps as well. It was really hard to see through the broken windows to assess how damaged the inside of the house looked since some parts of the photos were blurry, but from what she could tell there was heavy amounts as well as blood splattered in various spots across the walls and floor. "It seems there's another one," Amber finalized.

Alissa's eyes widened in disbelief of the damage caused to the house. A sudden realization struck her as she narrowed her eyes, moving closer to the screen to see well. "Wait. This is the neighbor's house right next door to hers," she said. "I don't understand, they always have bears though and maybe one of the people living in the house provoked it? It could have been a momma bear who was protecting her cubs and they sometimes don't stop just at the door," Alissa reasoned. "How would this make it a 'normal' case?" She became more confused and worried as she looked more into the newspaper article.

"Touché. But take a look at this," Amber then zoomed in on the article and highlighted a section on one of the paragraphs. "It says here that the police found "a strange yellow substance by the windows and the back door entryway". They collected sample and sent them to a lab to be researched," she read aloud, moving her eyes back and forth, scanning the text.

"Just from that alone it sounds like sulfur," Alissa commented. "Yes, it does sound promising. I guess it couldn't hurt to see what's going on," she added before looking the article over again.

"That It does and I think it might be a good idea to check it out; get **you** out of out the house since you've been cooped up for who knows how long," Amber smirked at the last part, swishing the blonde hair out of her eyes.

"A good idea to check out what?" A voice cut through the air before Alissa had the chance to reply. She then looked up to see Sam walking into the living room from the stairs.

"Just some case Amber sent over for me to check out," Alissa told him just as he started to slow down to a stop in the room.

"What's it about?" Sam asked as he made his way over to the couch and decided to sit down next to her, on her right hand side; compared to Sam in height, Alissa was about the size of a teenager, or so it seemed anyway.

"Hey Sam." Amber waved her hand to him from the other side of the screen before she raised her eye brows up and down inconspicuously to Alissa a couple times suggestively, which caused her to roll her eyes while putting a hand over her mouth to stop a laugh from escaping as a little bit blush surfaced on her cheeks.

Sam was starting to get a little curious at the scene playing out between the two girls, but decided to push it aside for now. "Hi Amber. How're you?" he asked courteously.

"I'm doing very well. How are you, Sam?" Amber was trying to get Alissa to start blushing even more, to at least get some sort of laugh out of her; she knew it wouldn't take too long because Alissa would be able to do that completely on her own without meaning to; it surely doesn't take much to make her laugh and once she starts, it's hard to make her stop.

"I'm doing pretty well, for a change, I guess," he chuckled, shifting a little in his spot on the cushion. After a little dose of small chatter, they decided to get down to business of discussing the information regarding the case; going over possible theories as to what broke in, why it did, how it broke in, what it was looking for, just anything and everything they could possibly think of. It was sometime later when a small silence came, and Sam then took that opportunity to speak up. "Uh, hey, it was nice seeing you again Amber. I hope everything goes well for you and hope we see you soon," He smiles his signature dimpled grins once again.

"Yeah it was!" she agreed. "I hope we get to chat more often and hopefully next time it won't be something job related," Amber smiled warmly shifting her eyes between the two on the other side of the screen. Alissa tried her best to remain cool and keep her composure, but Amber knew; she **somehow** always knew and not only did that surprise her at times, it also annoyed her to some degree. Was she seriously **that** easy to read? Was she an open book to her best friend?

"Yeah, yeah. I hope so too," He agreed while nodding his head.

"I'll talk to you later, Amber," Alissa finalized to try and hurry the conversation along so Sam wouldn't get suspicious. "See ya," before the call ended, Amber looked to Sam and then to Alissa with an obvious wink, finally disconnecting the call. Sam looked sidelong to Alissa wanting ask a question, but she quickly got up off the couch, grabbing her laptop in the process before he even got the chance to do so.

* * *

_**A/N: So now we have the boys, Amber and Alex! Yay! I hope you guys like this rewritten chapter. I put a lot of effort in this. Hope you can tell XD  
**__**So now Amber brought over a case for Alissa to look over. Hmm. Wonder what's gonna happen with that? Guess you'll have to read to find out.  
****~Cobalt**_


	4. Chapter 4-So It Begins

_**Second Ascension**_

_By CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 4/So it begins

"_It is always the start that requires the greatest effort._"

~James Cash Penney

With her laptop held firmly in her left hand and stuck close to her body, Alissa headed up the stairwell thinking of the upcoming case she contemplated about going on. Should she really go? Was this just a regular case that the cops can handle? Is this something that would bring back all those old times that didn't want to be brought back up and would she be able to handle them this time around? Will she just breakdown again, if that's the case? Is her grandmother all right over there? If she's not all right now, will she be okay in the end? The bumbling amount of questions swirled in her mind as she turned the first corner she knew by heart, continuing to walk on autopilot until she heard a familiar voice she didn't know was following her until it asked a question, breaking the chain of thoughts from her brainwork. "So I take it you're heading out then?"

She was a little startled to find someone behind her but wasn't all that surprised to figure out just who that was. "Yeah, I'm thinking about it," she said to the voice as she continued her way down the winding halls, running her free hand absentmindedly along the surfaces of the dark violet walls and the brass doorknobs of passing rooms, getting ever closer to the guest bedroom that somehow became hers over the years she's stayed at Bobby's. There wasn't much else in the room aside the usual bed and large dresser, but it was enough to make it hers. Alissa slowed down to a halt in front of a dark mahogany door, turned the handle and pushed her way inside. White walls and dark hardwood floor is what most people see when they enter this humble room until they look around for more details. What made this hers weren't the three shades of blue in the square patterned comforter on the bedspread or the white translucent curtains swaying to one side from the osculating fan blowing and pushing cool air, or even the books stacked neatly onto the book shelf. Yes, those were technically considered hers, but what made this room her own was the memories she made in this cozy suite; the time she took to paint the walls, the little wolf knick-knacks she found passing by garage sales on the way back from a supply run, the drawings she made and hung up carefully, the new books that Bobby got her on her twentieth birthday and spent gracious amounts of time reading every chance she got, and even the spontaneous game of hide-and-seek she played with Sam and Dean one spring afternoon. Everything she ever did, created, thought up was collected and transformed into a collage that was stashed away inside a photo album conjured up by her brain.

A large, navy duffle bag was pulled out from underneath the bed and put on top as she started to fill it with everything she needed and wanted to take with her on her trip; ten shirts for in case she slopped something on them she's have an extra to change into, four pairs of jeans, three pairs of shorts, an extra pair of sneakers, boots, bathroom supplies that were put into Ziploc bags so if they leaked, her clothes wouldn't be ruined, laptop with accompanying charger, and drawing supplies. She went back and forth through the room and down the hall to the bathroom to make sure that what she needed was in her duffle and not left behind like they have been in the past. "I can at least check out the spot like Amber suggested," Alissa told the figure who was leaning up against the door frame with his hands inside his pockets. "Plus I have family there too," she said, taking one last look around the area, double checking to make sure she had everything. "I got to make sure they're okay. You know how that's like with your brother Dean," Zipping up the duffle bag, she picked up off the bed, swung it over her shoulder as she turned to face Sam at the door.

The expression on his face appeared blank but she had a feeling that a whole different look was underneath the cover telling her he wanted her to stay. Alissa didn't know why or what his reasoning for that was. Or maybe she did know deep down in her subconscious but wasn't going to think or voice it, at least not now of all times. He pushed off the door frame to let her through and followed her again down the hallway and finally down the stairs. "How long do you think you'll be gone for?" Sam questions after a moment of silence between them.

Alissa was just about at the bottom of the stairs when she turned her head a little to see the towering man walking down with her. "Uh," she thought for a second until answering, "I don't know, a couple days, possibly a week a most," she then turned her head back in front of her, watching where she was going so she wouldn't miss a step and take a tumble. "Why?" she asked the statement-like question to him curiously.

All she got from him was a shrug of his shoulders and a "Nothing, just wondering," like he wasn't telling her what he really wanted to say.

That made her all the more curious but she pushed it aside. "_Okay then_," she thought to herself as she rounded the banister, heading towards the door until the next thing she knew the duffle was pulled off her shoulder and into the hand of Sam as he hurriedly walked out the doorway and to her dark blue, two thousand and twelve, Chevrolet Camaro. She didn't have enough time to protest what he was doing because by the time she realized it, he was about half way out the door and down the porch steps. "Sam!" she called after him but it was useless; he was too busy ignoring her.

Alissa briskly walked after him to try and catch up until Dean and Bobby greeted her as they came the opposite way towards her. She then slowed down as Dean was the first to get to her. "What's he doin'?" he asks her as he glances back behind him to see Sam opening up the back driver's side door, placing the duffle on the car's seat. Dean turned his head back around, squinting in the harsh sunlight beaming in his eyes.

"He's putting my stuff in my car," Alissa replied shortly.

Dean then gave her a 'No duh' look. "Yeah I know that, but why?" he asked.

"I'm heading off to Michigan. Got something I want to check out," she replied back matter-of-factually, sticking her hands in her back pockets as she noticed Bobby walking up right behind him.

"Okay, what kind of case is in Michigan?" Dean nosily questioned, trying to find out more information. He stuck his hand to the side of his face to block out the sun; he was finally fed up with it being in his eyes.

"Family," Bobby chimes in, giving a small nod to Alissa as he steps out from behind Dean to go next to her. He gives her a quick arm around the shoulder hug, a "Be safe kiddo", and then walks up to the house. Both of them watch him walk away for a moment before returning to their conversation at hand.

"Family?" Dean confirms with a question as he crosses his arms loosely over his chest, nodding his head slowly. "So, what, Sam and I come along for a visit and soon after, you take off?" As soon as those words left his mouth he instantly regretted them as they came out too harsh than what he meant them to be, he was only kidding.

Not even missing a beat, her face changed to a glare that sent a shiver down Dean's spine. "_If looks could kill, I'd probably be dead right about now.._." He thought to himself at the mistake he just made.

"There's a case that's up in Lachine and it's pretty close to my Grandma's place, so I would like to at least see her," she sneered in his direction.

"Uh-huh," Dean responds unintentionally bland, shifting his arms slightly, bringing them closer to his body, which in turn made Alissa even madder than before.

She scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief at his last comment. "Are you serious, Dean? What, I can't go on a case and see my family afterward? Is that such a crime?"

Dean narrowed his eyes at her as he was getting somewhat irritated. "I never **said** it was bad thing, did **I**?"

Cutting him off she retorted, "You're making it seem that way, **yeah**. I haven't been up there since what happened with my parents," her head dropped as she turned away from him as a memory surfaced in her mind that she has been trying to suppress for years. She could feel tears welling in her eyes but quickly wiped them away. She didn't want Dean to see her cry. It'd break his heart if he ever saw that happen.

Dean's expression softened, realizing what he had done. "C'mon, you know I didn't mean it like that," he then walked towards her and put a hand on her right shoulder, giving a gentle comforting squeeze. "I'm sorry," were the only words that were uttered out of his mouth. He was hesitant to hug her when she got like this. It was a bad experience for him, well, for both of them. It didn't end well for Dean; he ended up on the ground with a broken nose and some bruising along the side of his face and on his back last time.

Alissa jerked her shoulder out of his grip and started walking up to the house saying not a word, trying to suppress those memories that were doing their damnedest to resurface again. She crossed her arms across her chest as she walked along the gravel crunching beneath her feet, her eyes were still stinging of tears making her vision a little blurry but slowly they dissipated. A thought flipped through her mind that seemed to make her even angrier. "_He should be able to understand, right? I mean C'mon; at least __Sam's__ not an __ass__ about it,"_ she clenched her hands into fists she continued on her way.

She made her way into the house, seeing that she thought that maybe she forgot something again. It wouldn't be the first time. She wanted to distract herself, in any way that she could. She didn't want to start breaking down, not here, not now of all times. Briskly making her way past Bobby and Sam (who somehow got past her after sticking her duffle in the car) by the kitchen talking about something, she was a little too preoccupied to really make out what is was. Her boots stomping as she jogged up the stairs into her room to make one final check and to keep her mind stalled, away from what just happened.

Walking over to the dresser in her room, she plopped down on the floor and opened up the bottom drawer. Shuffling through the contents, a red notebook popped into view. Her eyes saw it and she stopped dead, she couldn't believe it, but those mixed feelings that were bubbling up in her gut told her otherwise. She wasn't sure what do and just ended up sitting there staring at it for a few minute before building the courage to pick it up for what seems like an eternity ago. Slowly taking it out of the drawer, she started thumbing through it, one page at a time. There was always that **one** page that made her stop and stare. Tears were welling up again. A few drops fell, leaving tiny, wet circles in various spots and on that single piece of paper was a note addressed to her. On that note, scrawled in cursive letters it read:

"_Alissa,_

_When you get home, we need some supplies. Can you get some?  
We will see you when we get back from this case out in Traverse City._

_Love ya_

_-Mom &amp; Dad_"

She read the words over and over again, her lips moving but no sound came out. She knew if she started reading it aloud, a few sobs might escape and she might not have the motivation to head to Michigan, let alone leave her room. Taking a deep breath, she closed the notebook and put it carefully back into the bottom drawer, shutting it tight along with the feelings she was experiencing. Getting up off the floor, she headed towards the door wiping off the hot tears streaming down her face. She stopped at the doorway taking one last look at the bottom drawer, she turned around and headed out. Walking back down the stairs, she ran a couple fingers through her hair and out the door once again. Alissa tried her best to flip her thoughts around and think of something else. Anything to not stir up anymore tears. She didn't need those right now. She just wanted to get the hell out of there and go back home. She didn't care if Dean was going after her or not.

She saw him walking towards her, "_If he has anything to say, I'm not listening, not yet_," She thought to herself. She wasn't ready for another argument to come her way, sow was **not **one of those times because of how badly shaken she was on the inside and in the back of her mind. As he got closer to her, she lifted up her hand signaling to stay away and don't even talk to her. "**Don't**, Dean," she told him, "I can't..." Those last words were just a whisper to her as she continued walking to her car, pulling out her car keys in the process. She opened the driver's side door, hopped inside, put the key into the ignition to start it up, and drove off with Singer Salvage disappearing into the distance.

Not even twenty minutes later, vibrations buzzed repeatedly in the cup holders as she drove down the interstate. She automatically knew who it was on the other end of that line, which was a no brainer. Getting fed up with the amount of phone calls, texts, anything and everything else that was coming through on her phone, she decided answer it and to hopefully get him off her back. "Jesus, Dean!" she was starting to get annoyed real fast, "Will you leave me alone? I know you want to talk, but I'm not in the mood right now," and with that she ended the call, not even giving the person on the other end a chance to respond or even talk back. She then put the phone back in the cup holder, and flipped it to silent. She didn't want to deal with anymore crap today; she was done.

After some fourteen, almost fifteen, hours straight of driving later, and being dead tired, a motel sounded pretty good. She wished she would have topped about two hours earlier to rest but wanted to get as close as she could to her destination so she wouldn't have to travel as far the next day as well as not causing a car crash on the way. She's never been so tired in her life!

Finally stopping just outside of Lansing, a motel came into view. She pulled into the parking lot, almost hitting another car on the back bumper; she finally managed to park it without any damages to her or other people's cars. Getting out and grabbing her duffle out of the back seat while trying not to fall down from exhaustion, she checked in, was handed her room key and off she went down the long hallway before finding it all the way at the end. Boy, did she ever feel lucky! Putting the key into the lock after dropping the keys a few times, she manages to open the door. Stumbling in through the darkness, not bothering to turn on any lights, she dropped her duffle by the bed carelessly, along with her phone on the bedside table. Taking off her jacket and shoes, she threw them wherever, plopping down she finally crashed onto the bed and within a few minutes she was out like a light and into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

_**A/N: Dammit Dean! You gotta watch what you say! So it turns out that Alissa has taken off to Michigan and here she is. Wonder what's going to happen? Hmm.**_  
_**~Cobalt**_


	5. Chapter 5-Welcome Back

_**Second Ascension**_

_By CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 5/Welcome Back

"_First it's the spark and then it's the flame_"

~_Spark_, Amber Run

Bright and inviting sunlight peaked in through the translucent, peach curtains of the small, white walled, motel room where the sleeping form of Alissa rested comfortably. It was the sound of flapping that mixed in with the tranquil scene as a new presence stood in the far off corner, watching, as if keeping guard of the woman resting in the scratchy bed sheets. Oceanic blue eyes glazed around the area until they found a plum seated, wooden chair pushed in underneath a small table on the opposite side of the room, closest to the bed. He walks over and sits down carefully, trying not to wake the sleeping woman as he leans forward with his elbows on his knees, hands folded underneath his chin and looks out in front of him as his mind starts to wander. It drifts from one subject to the next about why this woman was so special to others and why mainly to him, if she would be safe is he continues down this road he's currently traveling down, if not, then how bad would the repercussions be and would there be a way to avoid them? Could he keep his entire family safe? His drifting mind was then pulled back into reality when he heard shuffling in front of him from the sleeping woman who was now starting to wake which was a cue to take his leave. He stood up quickly and quietly from the chair, and with the faint rustling of flapping wings, he was gone as if he was never there.

Alissa pulled the covers back as she swung her legs over the side. She stretched as hard as she possibly could to limber up her body; a large, satisfactory yawn escaped her mouth when she got up off the mattress. She was rubbing the rest of the crusty sleep out of her eyes when she glanced down to see her little phone on top of small bedside table. Picking it up, she clicked the arrow key to reveal that she had three text messages, four missed calls and three voicemails, all of them, excluding one, were from Dean; the other one was a text from Sam. "_Really Dean?_" the thought floated through her mind as she unlocked her phone and checked through each subject. They roughly all said the same, even the one from Sam; "Hey, can we talk?", "I didn't mean what I said," "Alissa pick up your damn phone or at least call me back," she listened to final voicemail before letting out a groan, "Ugh, I'll talk you when I can, okay?" She figured she would talk to him either when she finished the job or when she got back to Bobby's again; **if **she went back to Bobby's immediately after the case. She might hold out a little while longer. She pushed those thoughts out of her head and sat her phone back on the table, she had to get ready and take off for her grandma's place. She was ready in about a half hour; a quick shower, change of clothes, a duffle strung over her shoulder, and one check out later, she was cruising down the highway.

Some four hours, two cups of coffee, and three gas station stops later, Alissa makes to Lachine as she travels down M-65. It's been, or what felt like, years since she's made it up here and she's missed every single minute of it; the clean air from the surrounding trees from the woods alongside the roads, the wide open fields clearing the trees that would sometimes have a wandering Bambi with mom, the local country station playing in the background as the wind rushing in through the rolled down windows, letting in that beautiful sunshine. She turned down a road veering off the highway that seemingly sparked the nostalgia of the times way before she was jarringly shoved into hunting; riding on a quad runner out in the woods surrounding her grandparent's house, eating the wild berries that grew just on the edge, watching the deer and bears that walk in and through the trees, laying out on the grass just gazing up at the twinkling stars overhead when it was a clear, crisp night. Those were times she wanted to do again, she could do that now, but it's the same like it was way back when. Despite them being simplicities, the memories that went along with them were on a much grander scale. It was like heaven to her and maybe, just maybe it really was.

She slowed down her car as a winding gravel driveway came into view from the clearing of trees on the right side of the road. Everything that she could see looked about the same since the last time she saw it; the wooden sign with the words "The Dreamers" gently swinging on the post in the wind, the medium sized, front deck attached to the pale yellow house where a dark blue, two seated swing sat in the far left corner and a large, round, plastic table with an unopened umbrella stationed tightly in the center shoved in the opposite corner of the area by the steps, the old horse barn that's been falling apart, empty for twenty some years and sat like a lump by the driveway; the large wooden barns one hundred some feet diagonally to the left behind it, housing some old tractors and other farm equipment rusting into the ground; the two car garage sitting twenty feet diagonally to the right of the barn where a GMC Terrain sat on one side while an old, faded orange pickup truck sat behind closed doors, shut away like a distant memory. Yeah, things don't really change, do they?

Pulling up in front of the old barn, Alissa put the car in park and shut off the engine and sat there for a minute. She looked around the immediate area but stopped when she saw the damage with her own two eyes that was done to the next door neighbor's house. It was exactly as the pictures looked in the article, maybe even worse. She then leaned over to the glove compartment and starting rummaging around for her handgun and her fake, local police badge that was stuck together with the rest of her badges in a binder clip. "I'll take the gun just in case," she spoke her thought aloud as she checked the magazine, making sure she had enough ammunition, loaded it back inside and stuck the gun in the back of her waistband. She turned to the back where a discarded, dark brown leather jacket laid haphazardly across the seat, grabbed it and put it on over the gray blouse she wore, sticking the badge in one of the inside pockets as she quickly surveyed her appearance in the driver's side visor.

Once everything was made the way she wanted it, she grabbed her keys, stuck them in her jean's pocket as she got out of her vehicle and headed over next door to see more of the damage first hand, but didn't get very far for a police officer stopped her to ask what she was doing here. She quickly flashed her badge and told the officer that her name was Sydney O'Hara and that she had transferred from the Midland police station to Lachine a few months ago, this was her first case since her transfer and would like the chance to look around, to see what else she could discover and report back to the station. The deputy who was standing in front of her didn't look to keen on what she was saying until someone waved her through. "She's all clear, Johnson. You can let her in," Alissa then looked over to her left to see a man in a full black suit, hands in his pockets, standing roughly-if she had to guess-five foot eight, possibly five foot nine. He had dark hair and dark eyes with a graying stubble of a mustache and beard that surrounded a cheeky grin. Once Alissa had walked past Deputy Johnson, she came face to face with that man. "Hello love," the man spoke curtly in a British accent. When she said her greeting in return, he pulled out his hand from his pocket and offered a handshake to her. "My name's Crowley."

Alissa took his hand and returned the gesture in common curtesy, sending a genuine smile his way. "Nice to meet you, Crowley," she replied. "I'm Sydney O'Hara," in the back of her mind there was a little inkling of suspicion about this new man she had just met. There was something that didn't sit quite right with her.

"Pleasure's all mine," he nodded his head with a smile as he pulled back his hand and stuffed it back into his pocket again.

"So," she started, leading into the subject at hand. "It seems that we have sufficient damage on our hands. Just how much, that's uncertain. Mind if I take a look around, see if there might have been some spots that were missed along the way?" she asked him, motioned her hands towards the crime scene.

"No, no. Please do so. Go right ahead," he told her, gesturing towards the scene as well.

They both continued to walk to the house and once Alissa had stepped through the threshold of the front door, she was hit with the smell of Sulfur that was emanating from somewhere in the rooms; the stench wasn't too strong but it was definitely unmistakable. From what she seen from the photos in that online news article, everything was there; the blood pooling and splattering on the gray walls and tile-like floors, and the broken glass from the windows. She also noticed how destroyed the furniture from the chairs of the dining room, the coffee table, the couch and loveseat duo, the broken down doors from the front all the way to the back bedrooms was as well; some parts could be salvaged, but the rest could be used as burning wood or scrapped completely. She walked down the halls as other officers meander their own way around the rooms, taking pictures, gathering samples and conversing with each other. "Have you found anything that piqued your interest, officer?" Crowley asked, which made Alissa jump from being startled. She didn't realize that he was still following her.

"No, nothing yet," she replied shortly after gaining her composer back. "Were there any witnesses around the area that could give details as to what happened here?" Alissa asked Crowley, walking towards to one of the back bedrooms that was supposed to belong to the couple who lived here. For how small the house looked on the outside, the inside was quite deceiving and the rooms were exactly that; this space resembled that of a master suite with accompanying bathroom, pastel yellows and calming blues filled the space besides the obvious blood and ransacks sheets on the floor.

"There was a woman by the name of Bonnie Dreamer who lives right next door. Officers have interviewed her and based upon her answers, she seemed to be confused as to this event," Crowley replied, looking up and down the walls, corridors and in through the rooms as they both traveled down the hall.

"Everyone's saying it's a supposed bear attack but bears don't usually do **this** much damage to a house," Alissa commented. "I could see heavy claw marks on the door but nothing like this," she added.

"What do you believe happened here Officer O'Hara?" the question rolled off his British tongue, becoming suddenly intrigued of her.

"Me? I'd say some group of sick and twisted people broke in and started killing just for the thrill of it all," she told him with a hint of disgust laced in her tone of voice. An officer walked past Alissa just as she entered into the room and in that very instant the stench became potent. "Ugh, smells nasty in here," she complained as she brought her hand up to her nose to block out the smell. When she walked on the other side of the bed that sat against the ride side wall, she figured out where the odor was originating from; three bodies lying sprawled out on the white carpeted floor. Two of them were she assumed to be the couple while the third appeared to be their child in this gruesome site before her, but it wasn't the first time she'd seen bodies like this and it certainly wouldn't be the last. She then decided to take a small tour of the room to see what other clues she might end up coming across.

"Those poor souls," Crowley commented as he walked up behind Alissa and crouched down in front of them, looking closer. "Who in their right mind would do such a thing?" he asked aloud, not really expecting an answer in return.

"Monsters, people who could be considered Demons and most likely **will** be demonized," she answered him anyway as she walked towards the windows when she noticed the only one in the room was busted out completely and just like it showed in the article, a yellow, powder-like substance dusting the sill, but what it didn't show was the odd markings just below it that caused her interest to pique. The 'writing' were some sort of odd symbols. One was a shape of an upside down horseshoe, another was a seven crossed like a 'T', a weird looking 'E' and some others she couldn't really describe. "Huh," she said to herself. "I may have to send this Bobby," she dug out her cell phone and quickly took a picture of the symbols to save for later.

"Find something?" he asked as he got up from his haunches in front of the bodies and strode over to where Alissa kneeled down.

"Yeah, take a look at this," she said to him as she stuck her phone back in her pocket.

He bent down to take a closer look at the symbols. "Yes, that is quite strange," he answered attentively while Alissa looked carefully at the writings on the wall.

"Do you have any idea of what it is or what it could mean?" Alissa asked, looking up to him then back to the symbols. She then pushed of her haunches as well and looked back to him.

"I do not, I never seen this before. Could it be some sort of code for whoever broke in?" He inquired.

"That could be a possibility. All right then, I'm going to have to let the station know what's going on," she informed him, turning around, Alissa then walked out of the room before she stopped in her tracks after remembering something. She then dug out her badge where in the pocket on the inside were a couple business cards. She took one out and handed it to Crowley who was now standing by the broken window and yellow powder on the sill. "If there are any other symbols, writings, **any** new evidence, don't hesitate to call me; number's right on there."

Once he took it from her with a smile, she then turned back around. She didn't hear what he had said by the time she was heading out the bedroom door and out of the house. "Glad we had this chat, Alissa," he stuck the business card in his pocket and walked to the front door and watched as she strode over to the pale yellow house. "Seems to me like you have some friends in **very** high places," Crowley commented, swiveled around and vanished into thin air.

When she hit the gravel of her grandmother's drive way, it didn't take long before a woman walked out of the house from the mudroom. An older woman in her late seventies, standing five foot eight, with short brown hair that's starting to gray, almond shaped hazel eyes, rounded features, a white T-shirt, khaki shorts, and tan sandals. Alissa walked up to her and gave her a long hug for comfort. "I came as soon as I could." Alissa pulled back from the hug and looked at the woman with a sympathetic smile. The woman nodded and motioned Alissa into the house, shutting the door behind them.

"I saw that you went over there," her grandmother states as she grabs out another coffee mug out of the cabinet. "I know it must look worse on the inside than it does on the out, and the out is terrible as it is."

"Well you're right on that one," Alissa responded, drinking the hot cup she received a minute earlier. "I won't get into too much specific detail, let's just say that everything in there is either trashed completely or parts of it is salvageable."

"That bad?" Widened eyes appeared on her grandmother's face as she took a seat at the small, round, wooden dining room table with her own coffee cup in hand. "Wow."

"Oh yeah. It's that bad," Alissa took a drink from her beverage and sat it back down on the surface, wrapping her hands around it subconsciously.

A minute of silence passes between them, so Alissa decided to look around the room both of them were in. It didn't appear that anything changed, if it did it wasn't by much. The room itself wasn't overly large that connected to a hallway-like kitchen, an average bedroom-sized living room, and could barely fit seven people surrounding the table. Even it could, it was a tight squeeze anyways because of the small built-in cupboards and microwave (it was a lot older than she is and surprisingly it still manages to work perfectly fine) around the corner the left side of the room and there was always one person who ended up getting the folding chair (which was usually her at Thanksgiving dinners or just when everyone decided to drop by) when everyone got the normal rolling ones. There were only two windows in the little space; one was behind her grandmother, Bonnie, placed right by the door to the outside. It was a convenient spot to watch in case people walked in. The other window was on the right side, wheat colored, wall in line with the white baker's rack filled with mugs and other miscellaneous knick-knacks to the left and an old, wooden bench sitting on the violet, carpeted floor to the right.

"What do you think happened?" Alissa questioned, taking a giant gulp of her coffee while she watched the sun filter in through the windows of the door in the mudroom.

Bonnie then sighed and moved her mug to the small, white, rolling cupboard next to her where a police scanner and coffee bot maker sat. "Honestly? I have no idea. I'll tell you what I told the cops when they interviewed me. I told them that I was woken up by this crash, or a banging-it was some sort of noise-over at the neighbor's place, y'know?" Alissa nodded in return as her grandmother continued, "I went outside to investigate. I didn't really see anything since it's the middle of the night and everything, so I went back inside and went back to bed. I didn't notice what had happened until I woke up the next morning. Looked out the living room windows and found the house with the door busted down, porch destroyed, and windows broken; the whole works," Bonnie finished.

"You think that the noise could have been a gunshot?" Alissa inquired.

"No, a gunshot would have echoed. You heard a gun go off over here before haven't you?" Alissa nodded her head at the question. "Unless the gun had a silencer and the crash was furniture or something," Bonnie then pondered at the thought.

"That could be a definite possibility," Alissa agreed. She then leaned to the side to dig out her phone. She unlocked it and opened up the photo she took over at the crime scene. "Here, take a look at this," she said, sliding the phone across the table. "Found this underneath one of the window sills in the couples' room. No idea what it means."

"What the heck?" Bonnie commented, knitted eye brows signaled bewilderment on her face.

"I have no clue," Alissa replied. "I'm gonna send it over to Bobby, see what he has to say and if he could crack whatever this is using those books he has stashed all the place."

"Well I hope he can because whatever that this is, it doesn't look good," Bonnie voiced, concern embedded tightly.

"I sure hope he can too," Alissa added, finishing her drink and pushed the mug away from her. "I'll be sure to let you know if he has anything or not," she look at her grandmother. "So, aside from what happened next door how's everything else going for ya?"

Leaning back, she folded her hands on top of her stomach, "Well, it hasn't been too hectic here with trees surrounding you at basically all sides; nothing really new, I guess. What about you, anything new on your end? Haven't talked to you in forever, so there's bound to be some news, right? What've you been up to?" Bonnie asked her.

Mirroring that same action, Alissa let out a long sigh "Yeah, it's been eventful all right. Going from case to case, helping other hunters out, researching on lore is getting pretty exhausting too. Some hunts have had Wendigos, Werewolves, Vamps and a bunch of other creatures," she told her grandmother. "I talked to Alyse about a week ago too, and she was saying that demons were popping up all over the place; even I've had some run-ins with them. It's getting annoying and I have no idea why they're all over the place."

"Really? Demons too?" Her reaction was something of surprise and expecting of said subject.

"Yeah. It's starting to become annoying after a while," Alissa complained.

"I don't think demons are all that bad," a familiar British accent suddenly joined in the conversation, "Yes they can be destructive sometimes, but, they can be loveable guys."

Alissa turned around and was greeted to the sight of a man standing in the living room by the red-purple colored EZ chairs. "Crowley? How the **hell** you get in here?" Alissa asked him suspiciously as she discreetly grabs the gun from her waistband sitting at the small of her back. Her grandmother looks past her to see the newest guest in her house.

"Just thought I'd pop in and say hello," he answers with a smirk on his face as he starts walking up to the dining room.

"Why're you here?" Alissa was trying to not jump from her seat and pull out her gun on the man in front of her grandma. She had a feeling that something was definitely off about him when they first met not more than a half hour ago.

The man's smile grew a little bit wider and put his hands up in surrender. "If you put that gun back where it belongs instead of turning it on me, I might just talk."

A surprising look came into view on her face wondering how in the hell he knew that she had a gun on her. "How?" Alissa asked herself as she put the gun back into her waistband and raised her hands away from her back to show the man that it's nowhere in sight.

"Thank you." He replies as he adjusts his suit jacket. "Now that that is over with, I have something here that's addressed to you," he digs through his jacket and pulls out a white envelope that had her name scrawled across the front in very fancy, cursive lettering. He offers it to her which she reluctantly took from him. "I would have given it to you earlier but there were too many people surrounding the scene," he send a quick smile but then fades as fast as it came. "Do whatever your little heart wants with that."

Alissa looked down at the envelope for a long second and was about to ask Crowley another question but when she looked up, he was nowhere to be seen. Bonnie ended up voicing the same exact same question that was running through Alissa's mind. "Where'd he go?"

"I have no idea," Alissa responded, turning around in her seat to face her grandmother again, looking down at the envelope held in her hands.

It was another full minute later before one of them spoke. "Are you going to open it or just stare at it?" Bonnie asked.

Alissa broke out of her trance and lifted her head. "I," she started. "I might just keep it closed for a little while longer. Since it's addressed to me and Crowley basically hand-delivered it, I feel like it should be read in private."

"Well he did say you could do what you want with it. It's up to you," Bonnie informed.

"I might end up doing that then," she confirmed with Bonnie as she got up out of the rolling chair across from her grandmother. She then looked away from the envelope and down to Bonnie. "I need to grab my duffle from the car, I'll be right back. Looks I might be staying for a couple days," and with that Alissa walked through the kitchen, out the door to the mud room, down the full length of the hallway like area, out the door to the fresh up north air to her car, grabbed what she needed and walked back in to the house again.

The next week was mainly on the lazy side with a few giggle fits here and there. Alissa was teaching Bonnie a few tips and tricks on how to keep the supernatural out of her house. She was going to teach her grandmother later on, but decided that now was a more perfect time ever since Crowley came to visit. Alissa got in touch with the local police station to see if there was anything new but they wouldn't release any new information, so technically the break-in murder was never solved. The police shutdown the case and didn't look like it would be reopened any time soon; that got her mad, but there really wasn't anything that she could do about it. She also let Bobby know what she found and sent the picture. He told her that he would have to get back with her in a couple days or so and see what he could come up with; she was thinking about calling Dean after she hung up the phone with Bobby, but decided against it since she would rather talk to him face-to-face instead of face-to-phone. It was unclear if she was ready to have that conversation regarding her parents again, but she would have it whether she absolutely wanted to or not. There's no running from one's past no matter how much effort it takes to avoid it; it always seems to find its way back.

* * *

_**A/N: So now she's at her grandma's place, Crowley makes an appearance and hand delivers an envelope to her. What's in it you ask? You'll have to stay tuned for that.**_  
_**~Cobalt**_


	6. Chapter 6-Oceanic Angel

**_Second Ascension_**

_By CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 6/Oceanic Angel

"_Do actions agree with words? There's your measure of reliability. Never confine yourself to the words._"

~Frank Herbert, _Chapterhouse: Dune_

It was back on the road again for Alissa. She wished she could have stayed longer but it was time for her to get going. One thing was for certain though after being up north, her grandmother was going to be just fine. She knew for a fact. Her mind drifted over the memories they made, the laughter they shared and the tears shed while she was there. But there was one thing out of all of that she couldn't stop thinking about. It was a dream she had a couple nights before she left that somehow managed to dig in deep to her subconscious, and boy, was it ever bugging the crap out of her.

**_Dull, gray bricks were layered halfway up the wall with small torch-like lights lined the length of it all, while dark, wooden doors with golden lettering spaced every few feet completed this bland palette of monotone hues. The only sources of liveliness where the distant voices in which were in the middle of a heated argument, words indistinguishable, that echoed through the corridors. One of the voices sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't quite put a finger on why. Curiosity ended up getting the better of her, so away Alissa went to investigate further. With her back against the wall, she slid along the lengths while keeping the lookout for anyone or anything that came her way. She could never be too careful; don't know just what could be around the bend._**

**_Closer and closer she inched her way along the twisting and turning of those long halls, which finally led into a much larger, warmer, sense of light contrasting the depressing colors. The voices became louder and crystal clear, but all the more confusing for Alissa to understand. Sneaking a peek just around the corner, everything came into view. Inside was a large library of sorts, large and long book cases with marble columns pressed together all down both walls. In some spots had smaller book cases to hold up ancient artifacts; one even had a curved sword! In the middle of the gigantic room, sat two elongated wooden tables. Each having four chairs and a small table lamp illuminating them both with a soft yellow glow._**

**_Two figures stood next to those tables as heated words and animated limbs filled the air. She could see them perfectly clear without either of them noticing her from where she was crouched down along the side of the archway connecting the two rooms. The person closest to her was a tall man who's back as facing her. He was wearing a dark red, long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up halfway on his forearms. Dark jeans and work boots covered the rest of his body. His skin was slightly pale with short brown hair spiked up and out in the front. The one thing that stood out most was his deep and somewhat rough voice that boomed the area. He sounded oddly familiar, it couldn't be who she thought it was, could it? "_**_Dean?**" she silently asked herself.**_

**_Just to the opposite of the man, a woman wearing a white, form fitted tank top underneath a black leather jacket. Her faded red jeans stood out the most with her ankle high, hiking boots. She had shoulder length, ombre colored hair with striking sea green eyes. Her voice was orotund and not backing down in the slightest. Based on the facial expression and her stance, she was just about ready to tackle him to the floor with punches flying, but held back that notion to actually carry it out that plan._**

**_Alissa listened closely to the exchanged words while trying to get in as close as possible without being spotted. She was only a few feet away now._**

**_"Just what do you _**_mean **I can't go with you?" The woman asked with full anger as she leaned against one of the wooden chairs while trying to not snap as she narrowed her eyes.**_

**_"I mean exactly that! You _**can't**_ go with me," he yelled back at her with his hands balled into fits, trying to keep his anger under control._**

**_"And why the hell _**not**_?"_**

**_"Because I have to do this on my own, that's _**why**_!" He spat back at her._**

**_"On your own, my ass!" She yelled, walking closer to him, "There's Croats and Angels everywhere, and you wanna take down big bad all by yourself? Yeah, good luck with _**that**_ plan."_**

**_"Don't you think I already know that?" He spread his arms wide._**

**_"No, not really. You two Winchesters're always like that. Someone's gotta save your hide and that's always been me ever since Blondie and Bitch McGee left," she retorted with a smile and poison on her tongue._**

**_That was thing that made him snap. In a split second, he lunged at her, threw her against one of the columns by a bookshelf. His eyes were full deadly fire in those deep emeralds as he held up his forearms against her neck, keeping on a strong pressure to hold her in place. He spoke through gritted teeth with his warning venomous. "Don't you _**ever**_ speak of them like that or so help me. I will send your skanky ass right down in that dungeon and once I'm done with you, all that'll be left of you is charred bone. You are not-or ever will be-apart of this team," He stared at her for what seemed like forever before he shoved her forcefully against the column behind her and stomped off._**

**_Before Alissa had the chance to process what went down, a voice from behind jolted her out of her skin, or at least that's what it felt like to her. "Alissa..?" The voice was gravelly but sounded shocked. Quickly, she turned to face the source and came face to face with another man. His skin had a tan tinge with short and ruffled, dark hair and ocean blue eyes. He wore a navy long sleeved T-shirt with a black leather jacket, faded blue jeans, and dark brown work boots. There were some things that stood out about him. His height was the first thing (standing about six foot), and his bright eyes the light blue teardrop shaped necklace he wore over his shirt. It was the exact same as the one Alissa was wearing! But the more important thing that stuck out was the same oceanic blue eyes she definitely had seen before and she couldn't mistake them. They were the same she had seen of the man who stood in that field in the last dream she had. "How are you here?" the man asked her as his eyes start to become shiny._**

**_"I-I'm sorry?" She answered with her own question, eyebrows knitting up in confusion._**

**_"No..." The blue eyes man looked down as he shook his head, "You're not her…"_**

**_Becoming all he more confused, she tilted her head slightly and creased her brows together. "I'm not whom?"_**

**_"You must wake up now. Go," he lifted his head and looked right into her eyes as a small smile formed on his lips._**

**_"What? I don't underst-" before she even had the chance to finish her sentence, the blue eyed man lifted two fingers to her forehead and whispered softly. The words were the last thing she heard before everything went black._**

**_"Goodbye, Wolfy…"_**

Cruising down US-10 was smooth sailing. The windows were rolled down, letting in the wonderful summer breeze of July. The radio playing _The Permanent Rain_ by The Dangerous Summer blared through the speakers, her fingers tapping on the steering wheel as she belted out the words.

"_So where the hell's my hope, and why can't I just try?_

_You know I've lost a lot, but I won't let this die._

_I know I've got a friend up in the atmosphere,_

_And another reason not to fear the sky;_

_No, not tonight._"

The sun was shining beautifully against the bright blue sky with barely a cloud in sight. "_It's gonna be a good day today. I know it,_" Alissa thought to herself as another verse came on the song.

"_Can I pull out all the stops, and get out of this town?_

_I want to make you proud, but I really don't know how._

_I know it's not helping to hear me say,_

_'I wish it was me in the car that day.'_

_Though something made me stop and think of what you said._

_You know it meant a lot, but I was just a kid,_

_One with all these dreams of growing up and playing music on the road._

_I've been screaming all these years and thinking of you both._"

Just after the final chorus sounded, Alissa thought she head the faint ruffle of wings just to the right of her, but she could've been hearing things, and it wouldn't be the first time it happened. By this time, another song was playing, and fate would always have their hand in something to make it looks like it was coincidental. Alissa happened to look to over and came across a man sitting in the seat, riding shotgun. With a jerk of her hands on the steering wheel, from her being startled, caused the car to swerve a little on the road. "Jesus! What the hell?" She yells to the man, doing her best to get not only the car, but herself too, back under control.

"No. My name is Castiel," the man responded with monotone in his gravelly voice.

Not really paying attention to the man as she finally gets the vehicle set straight again and trying to not freak out. "What?" She asks, turning the volume down as _Trench Coat Angel_ by Tyler Ward hums through the speakers. "Know what? I don't care," flicking on the blinker, she maneuvers over to the shoulder of the road and puts the car in park. "Okay, first off," she huffs out a breath of air, narrowed her eyes, and points a hard finger at him as she turns to face him. "How did you get in my car? Because you weren't there a minute ago," as she waited impatiently for his response, she thought this was a good time to fully look at 'Castiel'. He was wearing a beige trench coat over top a dark blue suit, a white button down shirt, and black slacks with matching dress shoes. His complexion was slightly tanned with the deepest of blue eyes and short, dark hair with the front combed over to the left. Something looked familiar about him, but, Alissa couldn't figure out why. Was it something about the eyes? The voice, maybe?

"I flew here," Castiel replied monotonously as he turned to face her.

"You flew here," She deadpanned before crossing her arms along her chest while leaning back into her seat. "If you did, where are your wings; or are they invisible?"

The smallest of smiles appeared on his face and if one wasn't paying any attention they would surely miss it. "They aren't. It's because they are on another plane so your human eyes can't see them."

**That** caught her off guard. She wasn't expecting anything like that, which made her suspicious of the man named 'Castiel'. It wasn't like she was already suspicious enough as it is, but, that just majorly increased it. "Uh-huh," was her only reply as she nonchalantly leaned closer towards her door, ready to make an escape.

Castiel squinted his eyes and furrowed his brows. "I'm sensing some discomfort here," His face relaxed a little. "I didn't mean for that to occur. My Apologies Alissa."

At the sound of her name, her eyes widened but tried her best to stay calm. Her hunter's instincts were raring to go. "How do you know my name? More importantly, just what the hell are you?" She had her hand right on the door handle, itching to go.

"As I have said before, I'm an Angel of the Lord," Castiel answered her back a little confused of the situation.

"Yeah, okay," she scoffed at him. "I'll believe it when I see it. Why're you here then, oh, 'Angel of the Lord'?"

"You need to go home," his response toneless.

"What?" Alissa scrunches her face in confusion. "Home? Dude, what are you talking about? What **you** need, is to get out of my car."

"We are getting nowhere with this petty argument. We need to go, now," he said, completely disregarding her earlier suggestion.

"We?!" she raised her voice in anger. "There **is** no **we**, buddy. So what you can do, is hop your little self outta my car is fly away with your so-called 'wings'," she put up her fingers as air quotes surrounding the last word. "_I don't think angels even look like a random dude in a business suit and an over-sized trench coat anyways,_" she thought to herself, getting somewhat annoyed.

"This," he moves one of his lapels as he glances down for a second and looks back up to her again as if he read her mind. "Is only a vessel," he replies monotonously.

"Vessel?!" She yells and that was her cue to get the hell outta there. She opened the door and jumped out, but, before she was fully out, Castiel grabbed her forearm to stop her. Alissa whipped around, pulling out the long silver blade that was in the waistband, tucked in by the small of her back, and slashed his left arm that held her back. He immediately let go with a yelp as instead of blood being the first to seep out, it was a bright, blue light, shortly after, blood followed and stated to soak the sleeve of the coat. Slammed the car door, she ran as far away from her car and him, putting as much distance as possible. She looked back for a split second to see if he was following, but her get away was cut short because when she turned back around, he was standing there, as if he was waiting for her. She skidded along the ground, raising her blade in the process to deal as much damage as she could in that short amount of time. She slashed at him, but the angel dodged, grabbing her wrist tightly to try make her drop the weapon. Using that moment, she jumped, springing forward and used both feet to kick him in the side. He let go of her wrist and lost his balance causing him to stagger back a couple of steps, almost falling to the ground. That gave her enough time to get back on her feet, grab the dropped weapon from the act, and get away as quick as possible. "What do you want from me?" She asked him, breathing a little heavy.

"You need..," he grunts as he tries to stand straight but the injuries are preventing him from doing so, "to go home," he grunts to himself again. "Something's...Not right."

"What the crap are you talking about, dude?" She asked him, getting slightly annoyed with him. "_He's getting on my nerves..._" She thought to herself.

"Home… You're old home. It's," he let out a huff of air. "There's something that we need to get from there," he finally got the energy to stand up straight and took a few steps towards Alissa, trying to get to her.

She follows suit and heads the opposite way. Her instincts are screaming at her to take him out but she's holding off for now to get more a little more info, and to stall as much as she can. "Just stay away. Stay right where you are," a high pitched hum whizzes by Alissa causing her to wince in pain, thus causing a headache to start to form. She puts a hand to the side of her head as the headache worsens.

Castiel looks at Alissa with a tilted head and furrowed brows, slight concern laced his voice "Are you alright?"

She stumbles a little as walk back from him, holding her head with one hand and pointing the weapon at Castiel with the other. "Stay back!" She exclaims, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, only opening them to find that her vision is a little blurry and when she lifts her head up to Castiel, something large and black was behind him. They shook slightly, like they were ruffled, but were fading in and out of her vision. Alissa couldn't keep her eyes open for long since the headache was turning into a migraine and got worse as time went on.

"Alissa?" Castiel asked again, walking closer to her.

"Stop!" She yelled at him as a sharp inhale with a groan of pain through gritted teeth escaped her lips. She dropped to her knees as the humming grew louder and her head felt like it was going to explode.

That was **it**. Castiel couldn't stand by anymore, he needed to help her. He jogged over to Alissa-limp included-with his injuries still present; he could deal with his wounds later. Right now, it was hers he needed to tend to. He knelt down next to her on the left side and gently put his hands onto her shoulders and spoke calmly. "Alissa," she tried to back away but he held her in place. "I need to get you out of here. Can you try and stand?" She nodded, not being able to speak due to the amount of pain she endured and not wanting to fight against him any longer fearing it would make her injuries worse. Slowly, she got to her feet, her balance was anything but stable. "Just let me help you. I mean no harm. Hold on," he bent down, putting his left arm under her legs by the calves, while his right arm was wrapped around, underneath her left shoulder. He hoisted her up bridal style and carried her to the other side of her car. Quickly, he opened the door and gently lowered her into the passenger seat, shut her door, briskly went to the driver's side, wincing as he did so. He made a double check on Alissa's condition before flipping on the blinker and on down the highway he drove.

* * *

**_A/N: And so we have our favorite Angel has arrived in a not so subtle way.. On the way to the very special chapters ahead. Tissues are mandatory for the next chapter or two, or three. Be ready. It's gonna hurt._**  
**_~Cobalt_**


	7. Chapter 7-Memories

**_Second Ascension_**

_By CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 7/Memories

"_Memories are bullets. Some whiz by and only spook you. Others tear you open and leave you in pieces._"

~Richard Kadrey, _Kill the Dead_

All around were dull crème colored walls, dark red carpet and two large windows with dark curtains shading just about all outside light trying to work its way inside. The ceiling was of a 'popcorn' or stucco texture that flaked off at the slightest touch, covering just about everything; sparkles and all. The door leading into this bland room was wooden and bright white. A large crack sat towards the top of the frame where six rectangles were etched on either side with a golden swirled handle as well. Behind that door, was a shelved closet with many miscellaneous things varying from old school papers to old toys she played with when she was little, to even random astrology books and drawings for friends. To the left of those shelves was sort of a built-in desk with two drawers filled with more papers ranging from old drawings of original characters created what seemed like forever ago, to forgotten stories, to old CD's of artists that haven't played music in who knows how long. On top of the white desk, was a little purple plate that had a painted black wolf standing on a cliff behind a bright white moon sitting in the back left corner. A few small black and white feathers were glued to either side of said plate as it was standing on a stand that resembled the cliff in the painting while hanging up behind the plate was a small, cobalt colored dream catcher with black feathers. Continuing to the left was another shelved closet but it didn't reach the floor like the other one did and instead of four shelves there were two while below where three white drawers with red small handles. Inside of those drawers were filled with clothes, more old drawings and stories, along with a few barely working pair of headphones that were sealed inside a Ziploc bag shoved wherever.

The wall running next to said closet was mainly bare except for two wolf paintings hanging up and two large windows. Both windows had dark blue curtains with red, white and blue star shaped pattern littered all across them. Sitting between the first window and a wolf painting was a large bright green plush club chair with matching foot rest to the right. Past the first window, was another wolf painting that had a light brown frame encasing the masterpiece of a pack of wolves walking in the snow, howling to the stars and in those stars was a faint outline of another wolf howling. The painting sat proudly despite the collecting dust on the frame and on the glass protecting the image. In front of the painting was a lamp stand and nightstand combination that had a horse jewelry box and alarm clock sitting on top. To the left of the stand, in front of the second window running along the adjacent wall was a large queen sized bed covered in wolf blankets and one peacefully sleeping, curly haired, brunette over the sheets. She wore a plain gray, form fitting, T-shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans and plain white socks. Her boots were sitting in front of the club chair's footrest; the long silver blade was nowhere to be seen.

Following along the length of the all and the bed was a doorway surrounded by navy crown molding leading into a room about half the size of the room behind. It looked to be some sort of walk-in closet with bland white walls and stucco ceiling that slanted causing the room to look lopsided, a golden rod connecting from the slant to the other wall on the right side of the room towards the very back that held up carious clothes and hangers. Two old dressers sat dead center of the small room with some jewelry boxes and random assortment of books sitting scattered across the top. Just to the left of the doorway was a light colored door with a golden doorknob and a medium sized bookshelf filled full of many fantasy and sci-fi, to the right. Everything around the room looked old and dusty like it hasn't been used in years.

A sharp intake of air cut off the silence of the room as I slowly start to awake. My eyes fluttered open, my vision was blurry, I felt like I slept for a month, my head felt a little foggy, and I'm **still** dead tired. Flipping over onto my side, I notice that in front of me are red, bleary numbers which I could've sworn it read '7:20'. But based on lighting that was coming in the room from below the curtains, I'd say that wasn't quite right. Rolling up out of bed, I got to my feet until I felt a small headache starting to form. Rubbing my eyes to try and wake up, I made my way out of the room only to run into the corner of a desk that sat on the opposite side of the door. I must've hit it hard enough with my right hip because it made a bang against the wall that made everything on top, including a 3 way touch lamp with the glass gone off it, rattle. "SHIT!" I cursed, rubbing my hip in hopes of trying to stop the pain because, **dammit**, that hurt.

Walking out of that room and into a little hallway type of thing, still kinda out of it but starting to finally wake up and become alert again, I notice a bathroom to my right, a large bedroom also to my right but straight ahead with stairs on the same side as well. Into the bathroom I went, and it wasn't a very large bathroom, but it was just the right size for one person to fit. It had a large sink counter top with cupboards below it, a large mirror and cabinet combination that had four large hanging lights above it, a shower sitting the in the corner to the left, a large cabinet in the other corner, a toilet in front of it and a plastic mini shelf sitting next to it. Flipping on the lights and the faucet, scooping up the running water in my hands, I splash it in my face. The cold water sending a jolt, making me fully alert. I wipe off my face with a small hand towel I grabbed from out of the cabinet by the toilet, hung it on the towel rack beside me and walked back out into the small hallway.

Something about this place seemed familiar. I don't what it was. I look back into the room I woke up in and I see my boots standing by what looks to be a club chair. How the hell did they end up over there? Why're they there anyways? Walking back in, I put them back on and notice that my blade is gone. "Okay. Where the crap is my blade?" I ask aloud, looking around the room, but then I freeze in place as I come to a realization.

My eyes go wide, seeing that I'm looking at something I haven't seen in about five years. It was a wolf painting on the wall by the bed. I knew that looked familiar somehow. That's when everything hit me. The memories; both good and bad. The times of bright sunshine outside being with two quarter horses, the two dogs that lived here, my mom and dad, the night that all started it and the night that pushed it over the edge. This was a place I didn't think I would ever return to again. I'm...**_Home_**.

Alissa ran out of the room and to the stairs, creaking of the wood and the thumping of the her boots as she hurriedly made her way down, her feet occasionally slipping here and there on the carpeted steps, making her loose her balance. Hanging onto the oak colored banister on the last part. She ran as fast as she could out the door to her left, down the mud room stairs and flinging open the storm and screen door open, letting them bang against the frames, she ran down the small hill past the large tree by the garage, and along the well-worn path to the newer looking, green and white barn.

"Alissa? Oh my God, you're up! Are you okay? What's wrong?" A female voice called after her franticly, trying to keep up with the woman but was a little hard in a pair of black heels. Spinning back around on her heels in the mud room, she came to face a certain tan trench coated angel standing with a hardened look on his face in the doorway. Letting out a frustrated huff of air, she crosses her arms and glares at him. "You could go after her you know," no response came out of the angel as he turned around and went back inside to continue what he was doing earlier. "Really? That's all you got to say to that? Just walk back in like nothing even happened? Huh. Aren't you just Mr. Care bear?" She follows him back inside the house, shutting the door behind her a little harsher than intended.

"I do care," Castiel replies somewhat monotonously as he scans over the papers scattered across the large table top once again, looking for something he somehow missed the first few times around.

"Then why the fuck didn't you go after her?! You brought her here! You know damn well what happened, so **why** bring it back up again?" She yelled at the angel, getting into his personal space, uncrossing her arms to place them on her hips with narrowed eyes.

"Because she needs to move past this," he responded slightly irritated. He doesn't look to the blonde woman, but instead shifts his gaze to the long silver object at the opposite end of the table. He lets out a small sigh before he continues. "There are things of greater importance that need to be handled."

"And just what were those again?" Amber inquired, not missing a beat. When she didn't get a response out of the angel she slowly stepped back from him. "Uh huh. That's what I thought," she waited a couple more moments to see if the angel would do anything else before speaking again. "Okay, that's it. I'm going out there. Since you don't seem to want to," spinning around on her heels again, she walked away with a flip of her hair and anger in her eyes.

I had to get out there. I didn't think I'd be able to stay in that house any longer. Why the hell was I brought back here anyways? What was so important that I just **needed** to come back here again? I don't understand it. It's been six years. Six years since-No. I don't want to think about that. I said to myself as I lay down on a bale of hay towards the giant stack in the back of newer barn. It wasn't a very large barn but it was enough to have three, ten by fifteen foot stalls, a thirty foot cement walkway and a twenty foot long run in for the horses that were once here. I felt like shutting down and just stare blankly at nothing, but I know that's not going to solve anything. Every time I felt one of those thoughts I would take a quick, large inhale and slowly release it. It helped for a little while, at least. I didn't realize someone had come into the barn until I heard a concerned Amber broke me of my thoughts. "Alissa..? You in here?" I heard the sound of her heels against the sound of the cement walkway, walking a little slow towards me. I shift my body where I was laying down to sitting up, having my legs curled up to my chest as I lean against the bales behind me, my curly hair blocking my face. A sniffle or two make their escape into the air.

"Hey," Alissa mumbles out as she tries to keep her and her voice from breaking.

"Hey," her friend replies quietly as she sits down carefully on the same bale next to her.

They sat there for a moment or two in complete silence as they collected their thoughts. It was Alissa who spoke first. "_Might as well get it over with..,_" was the first thing to speed through her mind. She in a large, quiet, inhale and slowly released it back into the world, calming herself in the process. "You know how I got started into hunting, right?" Alissa asked her, staring down at her feet, hair obscuring her face.

"Bits and pieces of it," she answered back.

"Do you want me to tell you, again?" Flipping the hair out of her face to look at her friend. She rested her cheek on her arm that lay across her knees.

"Only if you want to," Amber replied back carefully with concern written on her face. She wanted to be patient with her friend since she knew that this was a somewhat difficult subject to talk about.

Alissa moved her head to her chin was resting on her arm as she looked out in front of her at the white interior of the barn. She took in one large breath and slowly released again. "It was just a regular night. I heard a noise that was coming from downstairs that woke me up. I thought maybe it was the house making noises because y'know, old homes make bunch of creaks and everything," she could see her friend nod in agreement in the corner of her eye. "Anyway, I look at the clock, and it's about like two 'er three in the morning."

**Alissa slowly got up out of bed and headed for the doorway of the room. Normally she would just ignore the sound and go back to sleep but something didn't quite feel right. She went back into her room, into the walk-in closet to the dresser, pulling out a long silver sword with a medium hilt, triangular shaped blade and a metallic smooth surface. Walking back out her room, she crept down the stairs, careful of the creaky steps on the way down with the silver sword held tightly in her hand as it was pressed against her left thigh. As she was walking down the stairs she noticed that the overhead light above the sink wasn't plugged it like it normally would be which set off some rad flags in her head as she looked around to find that a lamp was on in the living room along with the sounds of fast shuffling of papers echoing in the silent room.**

"So, I get all the way down the stairs and slowly walk to the living room, but I stopped dead in my tracks because then, I hear someone rummaging through a bunch of papers and everything. I slowly start to back up n' head upstairs to go wake mom and dad 'cause there's two intruders in the house and floor decided at that moment to squeak and say 'Hey, here I am!' Shuffling stops and I freeze like, 'Shit. What now?' Next thing I did was start to run back to the stairs. I'm about half way up the stairs when I feel something grab my arm and pull me back. My first instinct was to start punching, kicking. I realized I still had the blade in my hand. I jabbed whoever had me right in arm, he dropped me and I yell up the stairs to hopefully get mom and dad to come down and get me out of here. Just got a word out and the dude I just stabbed comes up behind me and covers my mouth! I just happen to look up and I could've sworn his eyes turned black and he was smiling this great big and really creepy smile."

As Alissa was explaining her start into the hunting world, she looked like she was starting to relax despite the story subject. Maybe telling all of this was kinda therapeutic for her. Who knew but herself? She opened up, shifting her body on the bale to where she was facing her friend with her legs crossed in front of her and her hands resting in her lap but occasionally animate them for dramatic effect of the tale.

**Alissa tries to stab him one more time but fails when the guy knocks it out of her hand and end up crashing into one of wooden chairs surrounding the dining room table. She struggles as much as she can. Punching, kicking and yelling through the guy's hand to hopefully get away.**

**"Hey!" A commanding voice cuts through the air. The guy holding her stops which gave her enough time to elbow him right in the face. He drops her with a grunt and she runs to the dining room to find her dropped blade. When she turns around she finds that both of her parents are up and trying to take out the guy. Her mother tries to go to her when the guy grabs her and throws her into one of the walls in the kitchen causing her to yelp in pain.**

**"Mom!" Alissa yells as she ran to the intruder with her blade to hopefully injure the guy but failed when he socked her right in the jaw hard causing her to stumble back and fall, knocking her unconscious. The last thing she thought she heard before she blacked out was the faint flapping of wings.**

"By the time I wake up and everything's all said and done, mom had some bruising, dad with a hurt shoulder and legs, basically my everything hurt, the guy was a demon as I come to find out a couple days later, left in a hurry, bleeding everywhere," Alissa crossed her arms and leaned to the side to the bale stacked up next to her.

Another moment of silence passed but they both knew what was coming and that it was something that couldn't be avoided. Amber knew she needed to ask this but she sure as hell didn't want to for fear of what the answer would be. Taking quick second and a breath to calm herself down, she let the question roll right out. "But what happened that made you **not** want to come here anymore?" She didn't look up to meet her friend's gaze as she didn't want to come face to face with her friend's struggle to keep her scarred emotions at bay.

Alissa sucked in a breath, stilled for only a second that seemed to last for a lifetime before turning back around to how she was sitting before. Her back against the bale of hay, her legs to her chest with arms wrapped around, and her chin resting on her knees. She stared straight ahead at the white wall then slowly moving to the metal cabinet with the one of the doors dented in as she released that held back air. "It's been about six years," she stated. "**Six**. Years. Since I've been here. I can remember it so clearly. Everything. Like it just happened not even a day ago..." She was trying her best to keep her composure for the sake of telling this horrid tale. "I was going out for a supply run and as I was heading out of the house, I felt that _something_ was off. I don't know what it was so I pushed it to the back of mind and went on my way. As I was in town, getting everything, I still had that nagging feeling that there was something wrong," she could feel the tears start to well up in her eyes as she mentally tried to prepare herself on what was coming up next. She **knew** that this would be the hardest thing to talk about.

**_Alissa pulled up the driveway in front of the white two care garage of the red, bricked, two story farmhouse. She put the car into park and cut the engine. Grabbing the bags from the store out of the passenger seat next to her, she got out and shut the car door behind her. She unlocked the large white door into the mudroom but before she even got fully in the doorway, a strong scent of blood and sulfur hit her nose like a brick wall, causing a twisting of her stomach. The feeling only got worse when she looked up to see the door into the kitchen was wide open. She put the bags on the floor along the wall carefully trying not to make them rustle as she went to grab the blade the kept stashed in between the pant leg and the inner boot. Slowly she crept to the mudroom stairs and through the door to find splatters and large pools of blood everywhere. On the wraparound of the small kitchen, the cupboards, cabinets and even on the walls._**

"And when I mean everywhere I mean _everywhere_," she paused to slow down and recollect herself. "I kept going. Had to push past the amount of blood that was there and I don't think I've ever seen that much at one time."

**_Alissa crept further in to the room and came across the most horrendous sight. She didn't expect this but somehow her 'nagging feeling' ended up to be right after all because she stopped dead in her tracks where she saw on the floor was her mom and dad sprawled out, eyes wide open in shock, blood covering their faces, clothes and weapons. She didn't know what emotion bubbled up first. All she could do was stand there. It felt like she went completely numb, hot tears running down her face. Slowly she turned around and came to see writing along the wall by the stairs that said "_**_We told you we would be back**" in which it was written in the same blood that was pooled around her feet.**_

"There was **so** much blood. Their faces are **seared** into my brain. And it wasn't just my parents but all of the animals we had too. Our dachshund Tina, the sheltie Zoey, our calico cat Katie, and even the two quarter horses, Star and Babe…I can't just **un-see** that…" She felt those same tears she felt on that day start to well up. She couldn't stop them as sobs broke out with shaking shoulders. "I can remember just sitting there on the floor crying, screaming, wailing, wondering why I didn't just trust my instinct and stay home. Maybe they might still be..," she trailed off as she cried out, finally breaking apart, resting her forehead on her arms. She felt a hand on her back rubbing slow circles but then was pulled in close to what could only be described as the boob-squish-cradle-hug. She held Alissa close like she was a mother cradling a child, rocking them sided to side, trying to hold herself back from breaking down herself as some '_It's going to be okay, Alissa..."'s, and "You're right here with me... It's okay... It's all going to be okay..."'s _were uttered in hopes to comfort her closest friend in some way. "_No one should have to go through that. **Ever**,"_ Amber thought to herself quietly.

It almost felt like a century before Alissa calmed down from the amount of tears, the pain from the loss and the shoved down forgotten emotions of long ago. She breathed in a heavy breath and let it out slowly to steady her herself once again. "It took me about two weeks to fully snap myself out of my trance; I felt like I was on autopilot. I finally decided to give them a hunter's funeral instead of just bury them six feet under just for some black eyes to take possession of. So I set the pyre out in back on the brush pile. It's the least I can do for them after those black eyed bastards felt like killing my family for shits and giggles. All they seem to do is screw with you and ruin your life one way or another. I swear to God, the next one I come across, I won't hesitate to rip it to fucking shreds," she added through gritted teeth towards the end while her eyes turn cold for the moment but faded away just the same. She didn't realize that her friend flinched at that last statement made.

"Well, you're made it this far which is saying something. You can keep going. Keep pushing on," Amber responded back a little hesitant but brushed it off. "How did you meet Bobby by the way? I don't think I ever heard that story before."

A small smile formed on Alissa's lips, wiping away the excess tears on her face. She unfolded her arms wrapped around her stiff legs, stretching as she did so. "It was at least a few months after…everything happened...so I was in this sorta trance type thing. I don't really know how to explain it. I guess I wasn't really myself? Anyway, I was on a hunt about this vampire that was loose around town. I was investigating around the victim's place, and I come across another 'agent' who, as it turned out, was working the same case. We chatted and decided to work together on it. Get it done quicker, y'know? I never expected to sorta open up to the guy. But like I said, I wasn't really myself so who knows what I really said. I don't remember **exactly** what I told him but it was something related to what happened.

After the case was over with, he stopped me on the way back to my car, he said 'Hey. Why don't ya come back to my place and away from all this? It's no use stayin' here an' having it torture ya for the rest of ya life. They were good people and I think it's time to move on.' My parents knew Bobby somehow, which was one in a million I guess; they trusted him. I know they would talk about a Bobby but I didn't really make a connection that this was the Bobby they were referring to. So to make it a long story short, I accepted his offer, went back here, grabbed all I could or what I felt like I needed anyway, packed it all in the backseat n' trunk and followed his Chevelle all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota."

"Oh wow. It's also a good thing that you're here now and that's what matters," Amber gave her friend a warm smile as she got up from the bale of hay while she brushed herself off from the stems that stuck to her red dress. 'Why don't we head back in? Sure Castiel is wondering what's going on out here."

"Yeah. Alright," Alissa got up off of the bale while brushing herself off from the chaff collected on her butt and the back of her legs as well. They walked out of the large barn up to the house while Alissa took a little time to look around the place since she missed it the first time. She looks over to her left to the remains of the old wooden barn that was once standing there but had to be torn down because of the roof's collapse. "_It was a shame it had to go but what could you do?_" She thought to herself as he gaze moved to the chicken coop standing in front of her with a little walkway between a line of large assortment of pine and ash trees just to the other side of it. Amber was just a couple steps in front of her as they walked through the yard. She could remember the times where she would play hide and seek in them with her cousins came to visit and would always get poked or scratched by the branches. A smile crept on her face at the thought.

Looking ahead her gaze fell onto the large crab apple tree that was in front of the kitchen window. "_I always loved how it looked in the spring time. The petals looked like cherry blossom petals but the crab apples tasted nasty_," her gaze then moved to the giant tree that covered just about everything around the house, including the garage, the cement pad in front of it, the chicken coop filled with gardening tools, and the long line of trees for hide and seek. Tied to one of large branches was an old tire swing. The rope still holding on after all these years of playing on it and even in the most treacherous of Michigan winter weather.

There were so many things about this place that she dearly missed, and all of it was ruined by demons just for the hell of it. Now all that remained from this place was a bitter taste in her mouth. She was also glad that she took up on Bobby's offer because if she didn't, who knows where she might be or maybe even worse. Pushing that last thought out of her mind she caught up to Amber who was now at the door, impatiently, waiting for her. "You coming in or what?" She heard Amber call.

"Yeah, I'm coming. Just hang on," she yelled back as she jogged up the mini hill past the tire swing to the cement pad and inside the house once again. Going back in again was sort of a giant step for Alissa and she handled it very well by blocking out those memories and thinking to herself "_That was then. This is now. You're here now_," walking up the mudroom steps into the main part of the house, she finally got another good look at everything.

Right from the doorway and along the left wall was all window-like cupboards that had crème colored cloth and red apples pasted over the fabric, large cabinets and a dark green counter top with brown trim that led straight to a white door to the cement porch outside. A black refrigerator to the right and a wraparound counter space shaped like a blocky crescent with a black gas powered stove sitting in the middle. On the right side was another doorway which was the bathroom. It looked just like a hallway. It has pale colors on the walls and a dark blue color for the carpeted floor. At the opposite end was once the large computer room. Past the bathroom was the stairs that Alissa flew down and out the door just a few hours ago in a panic. On the other side of the wrap around was a small room that was considered a pantry room with its dark hues of green and brown. Following to the right, a light colored, like sand, baker's rack.

A large doorway that seemed to have once held up a pair of French doors led into the medium sized dining room and a large oak table sat dead center running vertical, taking up the space provided. A door on one end leading into the said computer room and on the other, another archway revealing a large living room filled with light colors of a love seat, a three seat couch, a large EZ chair in the corner by the dining room table and a fifty inch plasma TV on the opposite wall sitting dead center on a wooden desk. All of the walls had pale colors of white and gray while the floors were either some sort of hard wood (such as the living and dining room), carpeted (the bathroom, around the wrap around, the stairs and the pantry), or linoleum (by the door running out into the mud room and in the main part of the kitchen).

When they walked into the main part of the room, Castiel was leaning over the table, his arms holding him up as he studied the papers in front of him while a long silver blade lay to his left hand. He looked up with an emotionless face to look between the two before he went back glossing over the papers in front of him again. "You two were out there a while," He stated.

"Yeah," Amber answered him casually, "It's all taken care of. So you don't have to worry about it," something about the way she said those words as if there was a hidden meaning, didn't go unnoticed by Alissa but she decided to keep that to herself.

Alissa's gaze landed on the blade next to Castiel she narrowed her eyes at the sight only to be widened a second later as she started to pat her lower back and around her boots. "Hey. Where's my blade?" She asked a little curiously.

Castiel glanced up at her moved to the blade and back up to her as he picked it up in his hand carefully, as if he was afraid to drop it somehow. How can a silver blade like that be fragile? Alissa didn't understand but went with it anyways. "It's right here."

Alissa briskly walked up to Castiel only to have him put it behind his back. "Dude, c'mon. I need that." She told him, starting to become annoyed.

"Why do you have an Angel blade?" He asked her with slight accusation in his tone.

"I found it in the woods when I was up north when I was thirteen. I didn't know what it was. I thought it looked cool," She answered him back.

"Which angel did you end up killing?" He asked her with anger rising in his voice.

"I never even met an angel until yesterday! Like I said, I found the damn thing in the woods, shining from the sun on it. I looked around to see if anyone was nearby because maybe they dropped it and were coming back for it. I pick it up and I feel this hum of energy from it. Look around once more and head back out of the woods," Alissa responded back, irritated.

"Energy? What kind? Can you describe it?" He pressed further, losing the anger in his tone.

"I don't know! Like a warm buzz or whatever. Now can I have my damn blade back or not?" She asked in anger while holding out her hand in a 'gimme' type motion which Castiel stubbornly gave back to her. "Thank you," she says in return sticking it back into where it belongs between the pant leg and the inner boot. "And if you guys will excuse me, I'll be upstairs because I would like to go through all of my stuff again," Alissa turned on her heels, walked to the stairs and headed up to her room once again.

Castiel turned to Amber giving her a look to which she threw a glare right back at him before she stuck a hand on her hip. She spoke quietly even though her friend was out of hearing range, she could never be too sure. "No. I didn't tell her anything."

"Good," was his only response he gave her while he went back to look over those papers once again.

"Still don't see why you want me **not** to tell her," she stated.

"Because, we can't afford to screw up," giving a short sigh he silently added, "_Especially not here in this moment in time_," in his mind.

"I can't keep this from her forever. She's going to find out eventually," Amber argued back at him.

"You're going to have to. Do whatever you must to keep this a secret," he told her with a commanding tone.

"Yeah. If and when she finds out, I'll be sure to tell her that this was your idea. Then she won't trust either of us. I've been waiting for that day to come for a long time. I'm ready for it. Are you? What're you gonna do? How're you gonna get her to trust you again after that bombshell drops?" Amber shot back at him with now both hands on her hips.

"I'll figure something out when that time comes," he responded back before he sat down in the chair next to him and started writing things down like he was making notes for something.

"You better hope so. I'm not defending your ass when it does come around," Amber's words was the last thing spoken before she turned around to walk into the living room, she plopped into one of the loveseat chairs with a journal and pencil she grabbed off of the table passing by and starting writing down things of her own.

Piles upon piles of papers and scattering of all sorts of boxes surrounded me as I sat with my back to my bed and my legs crossed underneath me. "This is **really** starting to look like Bobby's house…" I said aloud after I plopped down another pile of papers from the box to my right. "Might as well start sorting through…" Music from a local radio station filled the quiet space of the room while I thumbed through everything.

Pulling a box next to me, I start rummaging through it and stuck to the very bottom were a couple pictures that I never realized I chucked in here. "_Hey_...I remember this," I say aloud. With the soft music drifting through the air, it kinda creates that nostalgic feel. I pull out the pictures to get a closer look. This was taken way back in middle school. The images showed a group of my friends sitting at a folding lunch table just chatting and laughing. I spotting me with my bangs covering my forehead, my small Harry Potter looking glasses smiling like a goof at the camera sitting towards the right at the end of the table. Alyse was sitting towards the middle where it folds, she had her long dark born hair that reached just about to her middle back. Hair parted to the side and suede thigh high boots. As I looked closer, I could spot some other people from our group who were just barely in the photo. I found Dimetri who sat to the left of me wearing a black T-shirt, who was talking to the light brown haired, glasses and 'Nintendo' shirted Cody-about some video game that I never played let alone heard of-next to him was Erin with her mushroom looking haircut and bright blue turtleneck. "_I really haven't heard from those three in a long time. I wonder what they're up to,"_ a though passes through my mind.

"_Huh,_" a smile starts forming. "_Cody would've loved the whole hunting thing. He was always talking about creatures from different worlds and the lore on them and everything. I didn't really think nothing of it until now,"_ I kinda liked listening to him telling stories about different creatures and legends from other places like Russia or France. I also thought that a lot of it was just bullshit and just pretended to be into the conversation. That was before I got into hunting. Now I know better.

My gaze then moves to young Amber sitting at the very end of the table. She looked a little out of place in the whole scene but I could tell that she was listening to the conversations being passed around. She had bright blonde hair that reached to her lower back, small glasses and a diet Coke in front of her. Times sure have changed since then. Not just for me but for everyone I think. I've known Dimetri and Cody since fourth grade, Alyse since sixth, Amber since about seventh, Erin I would say eighth grade. So basically I've known everyone for about twelve to fifteen years. _Damn_, times flies. And out of our entire friends group, there were only a couple that really stuck around while the rest just simply faded away.

There were a couple other people who look familiar but I couldn't place their names. It's been too long. I then place those pictures on the bed behind me and continue to sift through all of these belongings and throw away what I really didn't need anymore. It's going to down memory lane for me and this stuff hasn't been touched in like six years so I think it's time for some clean house, don't you think? I had a quarter left of stuff to sort though and was just about to start working on it before a soft knock accompanied by a deep, gravelly 'Hey' broke me of my concentration. I look up to see a Castiel standing at my bedroom door with a small curious look on his face. "Hello Castiel," I reply back a bit surprised. I'm still wary of him but I'm trying not to show it. Something about him seems 'off' to me. I don't know what it is.

"May I come in?" He asks as he looks around for a quick second then returning his eyes to me.

"Uh, sure. Yeah c'mon in," responding back with a quick hand motion signaling to walk in. "Excuse the mess. Still cleaning in here."

"That's quite alright," he replies with a small smile, looking around the main part of the room as he walks around before carefully sitting down in front of me, mirroring my position. He then starts looking through the papers that were set out in different piles. I look him up and down before I go back to cleaning up what's left of the assortment. I don't care if he goes through it. It's just old drawings and doodles that I don't want anymore. "Who drew this?"

I hear him ask but it sounded more to himself than to me but I looked up anyways and I see he was looking at a somewhat realistic drawing of how I would look like with wings; shading and everything. I was bored, alright? "I did," I answer confidently. "I got bored one day and all of a sudden I got this idea for a drawing, so I just went with it and that was the outcome."

He glanced between the picture and me then to fully study the drawing. "It looks really well done," he replied.

"Well, thank you," I said back, feeling flattered by the compliment.

"You're welcome," he pauses for a moment. "If you would like, I could help you clean this up faster..?" He asks.

"Hmm," I thought for a second. "Sure. If you want to. Just throw out any old school stuff. I have stuff separated in a 'Keep' and a 'Do Not Keep' pile _soo,_ if you're not sure about something then just ask me, okay?" He just nodded his head in agreement as he went to work.

It was moment of silence between him and me but the music seemed to fill that emptiness before I decided to speak again. "I didn't get the chance to thank you for saving me yesterday."

Castiel stopped what he was doing and looked up at me. For a split second it looked like he didn't know what I was talking about but then he finally got it. "You're welcome. You were in pain and I didn't want to just leave you there. I had to get you someplace safe."

Now it was my turn to be curious. "Why didn't you take me to a hospital? They could've done something with my injuries. And how did you know where my old home was? How'd you even get in if the key was hidden?" I know that it was bombardment of questions but I needed to know.

"Because of your abilities," I could've sworn that's what he said but he said it rather quiet and the music was playing in the background still, so I didn't quite understand. "I went by a gut feeling when I was driving around. I had to look for the key. I put it back in the right spot in case you are worried," he gave me a small smile then picked up the drawing I did. "Do you mind if I keep this?" He asked, quickly changing the subject.

That kinda surprised me. Why did he want **that** for? "Sure, I guess. Not sure why you want to keep it for. But whatever then," he folds it carefully, sticks it into an inside pocket and carries on sorting the through the piles again. By the time everything was all sorted through, it was roughly an hour or so later. Altogether, this took about three hours. I had so much to sort through. You would think I would have sorted through this a long time ago but I just crammed it someplace and then I forgot about it. Oh well. It's taken care of now. Better late than never, right? "Finally got that done," I say to myself.

"Yes. It would seem so," He answered nonchalantly. He got up from where he was sitting, which was now in the green club chair, and stretched out his body, relieving any stiffness from sitting in one place for so long. "I believe that Amber may have a case that she wants you to go with her on."

"Oh really? Sounds interesting," I get up from the bed, move all of the saved papers back in the drawers and boxes they all came out of, headed towards the door, quickly turned back around, "Just hang on, I'll be right back. Gotta use the bathroom,", and walked out the door. I do my business, walk out and come to find Castiel still in my bedroom but he's looking through all of my old sketchbooks that were on top of the built-in desk. I'm guessing he loves my artwork? I don't know. I head towards the stairs but look back at my room. "Yo," I grabbed his attention as he closed the book and sets it back where it belongs. "I'm going back downstairs."

He nods his heads in response. "I'll shall be there shortly."

"Okay cool," was all I said before I headed down those floral print, carpeted stairs.

"Ey, Castiel said you might have a case for us to work on?" Alissa called as she made it down and into the dining room.

Amber looked up from where she sat in the living room, and answered "Yeah. It's looking like Werewolves. Heart missing and everything," Amber put down the journal she was writing in, got up out of the loveseat chair and walked up to the dining room table. "There's an article about it on the table if you wanna read it over."

Alissa walked over and started scanning through, she read it quietly to herself. But the majority of the article stated that two bodies were found at the "Amaze-place" playground down by the baseball fields just off of the interstate by a local resident, James McAvery, 17 years old. He stated that he was going out the fields to get some practice on his swings and once he got there, he saw the two bodies lying there, throat slashed, eyes wide open. Police are stating it was animal attack due to both of the victims hearts are missing, but shall have the official causes of death within the week. "Yeah, I'd say that sounds about right," she turns towards her friend. "We doin' this then or what?"

"Hell yeah we are," she headed towards the bathroom taking the computer room shortcut. "Just lemme check something, grab my badge and I'll be all set."

"And while you do that, I'll go get changed," Alissa responded back to her as she went back up the stairs.

She came back down the stairs a few minutes later with a navy pant suit and a sky blue blouse. Amber was waiting at the bottom of the stairs leaning against the counter by the sink. "All set?"

"Yep, let's roll," they walked out of the house and into the garage to Amber's red, 1965 Dodge Charger. They both go in, engine fired up, backing out of the garage, and turning out of the driveway and down the road they went.

"Speaking of Castiel..." Amber trailed off as she did a little shimmy with her shoulders, a smirk on her face.

"Oh, don't even start. No," Alissa replied a smile that's trying to desperately hide away. "He just came upstairs to help sort through all of my shit, that's all."

"Uh-huh. That's _all_ it was," was Amber's sarcastic response.

"What happened to talking about my crush on Sam?" Alissa asked and as soon as the words left her mouth, she knew she screwed up. She was done for. "_God dammit…_" She swore in her head at what she just admitted.

"Ha!" Amber exclaimed in victory. "I knew it! I knew you had a crush on him," she told her best friend as she did a little dance in her seat while she continued to drive. "I so totally knew it."

"Are you done?" Alissa asked, crossing her arms over her chest from the embarrassment from her confession and she knew that Amber wasn't going to let it go for a while, if ever.

"Nope," she replied, a grin on her face. "I just had this feeling that you did like Sam and it turns out that I was right," she said looked out to the road and glanced to her friend again. "Now I'm done." A small silence popped up between them until Amber spoke again. "But Castiel, hmm."

"Oh my god, Amber!" Can you not?" Alissa asked cutting her friend off, trying to hide her smile. "I thought we were on a case not going into details of my love life?"

Amber pulled her Charger up to the curved walkway, putting it into park. She turned the radio station down as she sat back in her seat. "Touché," She replied, sitting back in her seat. "Okay, so you wanna head to the Medical Examiner or should I?" Amber asks her friend whose fiddling around with her badge to make sure that everything's intact.

"You can. You're more familiar with terminology and everything. I can go handle the poor kid," Alissa replied as she stuck her badge in its holder and got out the vehicle. She turned back around to lean into the passenger side door. "Lemme know when you're done, kay?" Amber hummed in reply. "See you then, Agent Sparky."

"See you then, Agent Cobalt," Was Amber's response before she pulled away. Alissa walked up the McAvery household, took a deep breath, exhaled and knocked on the front door but on the second to last knock the door opened like it was never fully shut tight. That sent red flags in her mind. She pulled her gun out of the back of her slacks and slowly walked into the house. Raising her gun in front of her, she went along through the rooms and stopped dead when she heard a noise that sounded like an animal feeding on something. It didn't sound quite right. Continuing on into the living room she then came across the source of the noise. It was a young man who was huddled over a body. The man stopped what he was doing and looked up at Alissa who now had her gun raised, blood covered his mouth and hands. His eyes, brown as they were, shifted to bright yellow, teeth and claws extended, a low growl poured out of his throat. He bolted through the house and out the backdoor into the woods just outside. Alissa barreled after him but she couldn't catch up and ended up stopping outside of the back door with a pissed off expression. "God Dammit…"

Alissa walked back into the house pulling out her cell phone when it starts ringing. She looked at the caller ID and just her luck, it was Sparky calling. "Y'ello?"

"Just as I thought, it was a werewolf. Hearts're missing, throats slashed; the whole thing. What's new on your end?" Amber stated.

"Well, for starters, I walk up to the door, knock on it, it's already opened. I walk in, pull my gun out, and I come across this kid. He's hunched over a body that was in the living room," she starts as she walks towards the front of the house again. "Turns out, he's a werewolf. Sharp claws, teeth, brown eyes turning yellow, deep growl. Not sure if he's our werewolf or not. We'll just have to see. Anyways, next thing I know, he freaking bolts on me. Tried to catch him but he was long gone. I have a general idea where he went. I see on the body that the poor guy was tore into, only the throat was slashed. Heart was still there. Guy looked dead anyways," she paused for the moment. "Meet you back here?"

"Hoh _damn_! Yeah. I'll see you then," Amber said back then hung up the phone.

It was about twenty minutes later that Amber pulled back up the curve and stopped. Alissa hopped in the passenger side with a quick sigh. "Alright, let's go hunt us a werewolf," Alissa stated as the Charger took off down the road.

"You said you had an idea on where he _might_ be?" Amber asked.

"I have a feeling that he's hiding out in the woods by a farm. I'm guessing that he didn't get his fill. Closest farm by here would be on Midland. So I'd say," Alissa pointed her finger to her right, "That a way."

Finally finding the farmhouse a couple miles out of town, they pulled up to the old, brick, two story house and shut off the engine. "Let's do this carefully so no one gets hurt," Amber ushered.

"Okay but since when do we ever **not** get hurt on a hunt?" Alissa retorted as she was checking her gun making sure that there was enough ammo inside the magazine.

"You make a good point. Don't **try** to get hurt," Amber stated with a sigh as she stuck her gun in the back of her skirt at the small of her back, shuffling the blazer over it to keep it hidden.

"I'll see what I can do. I make no promises," Alissa replied, getting out of the vehicle to tuck her gun in the back of her slacks on her right hand side. "Y'know, I always loved werewolves as a kid. Always loved the stories and lore around them. Once I started hunting them," she made a motion with her arm that showed her slicing through air horizontally. "Nope. Not anymore."

"Yeah. I know what you mean. Werewolves are nasty creatures," Amber stated back.

They both walk up the wrap around porch of the old house, amber knocks on the door while Alissa glanced around the area. The front door opened to reveal an older man, who appeared to be in his late seventies, with graying brown hair, light gray T-shirt, blue overalls, work boots, and glasses. "Hello, how may I help you?" The man asks them. He seemed to be the type with a big heart.

"We're sorry sir. We don't mean to bother you," Alissa stated curtly. "We've been looking a young boy who has been missing for past few hours and my partner and I have received a tip that he was last seen around this property. Would it be alright with you if we can take a look around?"

"Let me see some ID first, if you don't mind." The old man stated.

"Of course," Alissa replied.

Amber and Alissa pulled out their FBI badges and showed them to the old man and he nodded his head in agreement "Sure. Just be careful of the horse. He can be a little rude."

"Thank you Mr.…?" Amber trailed off.

"Dunley. If you come across anything be sure to let me know. It would be nice if that poor kid was returned to his family," Mr. Dunley said.

"Will do," Alissa told him. Mr. Dunley hummed and closed the door, leaving the two to start investigating the property. She turned to her partner in crime. "You wanna do the outskirts and I'll do the barn?"

"Sure. Why not?" Amber replied, "You're better at deal with horses than what I am."

"Not really," Alissa shrugged.

And on that note they split up and headed off. Alissa opened up the large barn door slowly to not spook the animals that may have been inside at the time. She pulls out the gun she had at her waist, keeping it at the ready. Walking in she moved fluidly down the walkway along the stalls, a horse snorted from a couple stalls down, a goat bleating from outside of the barn in the pens, and a rustling in the hay mounds towards the back that caught Alissa on high alert. As she got closer and closer her nerves started to jump up higher. When she was finally upon one of the mounds, something jumped out in front of her causing her to jump in fright but it was only tiger striped cat that only meowed. "Guess the cat's on mouse duty then," Alissa mumbled to herself.

Right after those words were uttered a mass barreled past, causing her to lose her balance, almost falling to the floor, her finger pressed the trigger out of the reaction and ended up hitting the mass due to a yelp echoing in the small space. Once she regained her footing, she happened to look up to see a young man running out of the barn holding his shoulder.

Alissa ran after him as fast as she could until she heard a voice yell after her. "Cobalt!"

Amber was running up to her with a worried expression on her face. "I heard a gunshot. What happened?"

Alissa slowed down a little so she could talk properly. "I think I found the werewolf, I accidentally shot him in the shoulder because he jumped me. He took off towards the woods in the back of the house. You head to the front of the house, let Mr. Dunley know what's going on and go from there. I'll be at the back."

"Kay. On it," Amber confirmed as she jogged to the house to a concerned Mr. Dunley who was now out of the house and on the front porch. Alissa sprinted to the back of the house and when she saw the young man she tackled him to the ground. He growled, clawed, everything he could to get her off of him but it was useless. She had him pinned with his arms behind his back and his face pushed into the ground.

Both Mr. Dunley and Amber come jogging up and right when Mr. Dunley gets there, the boy looks up with teeth bared, piercing yellow eyes and a growl. Mr. Dunley's eyes were wide as saucers. "James?"

As soon as he saw him, James started to thrash around and try to break free. He thrashed hard enough to knock Alissa off of his back and took off once again. He never expected to be clotheslined by Amber. He landed on his back and a cocked gun pointed at his heart. "Don't. Move," Amber commanded. James took a gulp, obvious fear in his yellow eyes.

Mr. Dunley was a little shocked but he seemed to have calmed down. "Agent Sparky. I believe the use of a firearm in this situation would not be necessary," He walked up to James who was still on the ground in fear. "James, I thought you had control over your powers?"

Alissa cut him off. "Wait, you **knew** he was werewolf? Are you a hunter?"

"I am-" He started.

"Then **why** didn't you do anything about this?" She cut him off again, getting a little irritated.

"That was my first instinct but I felt that he could control them." He replied a little let down by James' actions.

All of a sudden James started to shake widely as she curled up into a ball, grunts and whimpers came out of his mouth signaling that he was in pain. He was shifting between forms. He was only able to get out a few words at a time. "I...can't...Too...much...Kill..." Mr. Dunley knelt down in front of James to help steady him but Amber pulled him back just in time before James swung his claws at him. James then fell onto the ground again, shivering. "Help...me..." James said to him.

"It's okay James. We'll help you get through this," Mr. Dunley comforted.

"I don't think there's anything we can do, Mr. Dunley," Amber told him, placing a hand onto his shoulder.

He gave a sigh in response. "I tried to keep him under control but I guess it was all for nothing."

"I know you did but don't beat yourself up over this. It had to be done," Amber reassured him as she walked back over to Alissa.

Out of nowhere James springs off the ground, tackles Mr. Dunley to slash his throat. He didn't get the chance to finish the job because Alissa had grabbed him by the arm to yank him off. He started kicking and clawing but finally got free from elbowing her right in the face. Alissa let go, shielding her face and when he turned around he ended up slashing her across her left arm, taking part of the navy blazer with him. Trying to finish his what he started, James ran back to Mr. Dunley, who was still lying on the ground, until he was shot in the other shoulder making him jump back, and finally shot through the back to his heart by Amber, killing him instantly. "Alissa? You okay?" Amber asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Face kinda hurts and jacket's torn but I'll live," Alissa replied.

They both walked over to Mr. Dunley but noticed that his throat was slashed. He was long gone. Saddened by the events that transpired over the past hour, they grabbed their gear out of the back of the Charger and gave Mr. Dunley a Hunter's funeral and buried James' body out in the back by the shed next to the woods. Amber gathered up the shovels while Alissa went back to the Charger to put all of the other materials away. Amber walked into the shed only to be stopped short by an invisible wall. She dropped the shovels as her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, no, no, no, no. No. Not now. Why did it have to be now?" Amber started to panic. A quick idea popped into her head. "Uh, Castiel? I know that this might seem kinda awkward with me praying to you and all. We have a little _situation _on our hands and she can't find out this way. Please come quickly," the very next second, the sound of flapping wings was heard to her immediate left. A deep and gravelly voice sighed. Amber retorted, annoyance in her tone. "Not my fault I got stuck. I didn't know it was there until it was too late. Seriously though. Just get me out of here before she shows up or this could go **bad**. Of course, the few things that I'm **not **immune to is a freaking Devil's trap. _Fantastic_."

Castiel broke the trap in one quick motion of his foot but once they both turned around, they never expected Alissa to be standing there with wide eyes. Only one word escaped out of her mouth since she was took shocked to say anything else but it sounded more like a statement than an actual question. "What?"

* * *

_**A/N: OH SNAP! What's just happened? So! Alissa is home now. Well isn't that fantastic? Incoming tissues for next chapter too. I promise for happiness soon. We'll get there, I promise. It just takes a while.**_  
_**~Cobalt**_


	8. Chapter 8-Don't Get Any Closer

_**A/N: Usage of the "F-bomb" is present in this chapter**_

* * *

_**Second Ascension**_

_By CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 8/Don't Get Any Closer

"_When you think your life is falling apart, it's usually falling together in disguise._"

~Charlotte Eriksson

It was one second that they were all standing at Mr. Dunley's place and the next, in front of the green and white barn back at Alissa's. Castiel was somehow nowhere to be seen. Alissa looked at Amber with the same wide eyes that she was giving her. It took a moment for it all to process but once it did, that flick of the switch is when everything changed; her body language shifted, her eyes grew dark with anger and a snarl pulsed on her lips. Amber took a few steps back matching Alissa's steps forward. Amber knew that this day was coming. She knew it from the start but she didn't expect it to go down like **this**. "A-Alissa just hold on a minute, and let me explain," Amber tried to reason but all her friend could see was red. Alissa charged at her then threw a hard packed punch to her left cheek strong enough to send Amber down to the gravel below. Amber got up as quick as she could by a backwards somersault, then standing back up only to be kicked under the jaw and punched several more times. Alissa's bright eyes were now dark in rage. She couldn't believe this. Any of this.

Just before Amber took another tumble to the ground, she swung her leg around to knock Alissa off balance. As Alissa made her fall to her back, Amber shot up and she ran as fast as her heels could take her through the gravel of the large open area of the driveway. Amber first looked to see where her angel 'buddy' was but once she saw that he was gone, she then glanced around for something to stall Alissa with in case Castiel couldn't intervene. Which was kinda stupid. Where the hell is he? There's a brawl going on over here and he's not there to stop it.

"Castiel? Buddy? It would be so, so, **so** helpful for **you** to lend some of your angel assistance right about now," Amber pleaded as she came across a small wooden board that was laying on top of one of the piles from where the old barn stood. She quickly grabbed it and swung around her just in time to hit Alissa across the face with it.

Alissa fell to the ground with a huge gash on the side of her face that was starting to bleed. It took a couple moments for her to get her bearing backs after that wallop but once she recovered, she felt something warm flow down the side of her face. She touched it and examined it in front of her, she angered even more, "You bitch," She spat up at her with a sneer.

"I could say the same to you too," Amber retorted back, tightly hanging onto the board like a lifeline. She was unfortunately ready for another go 'round. She kinda wished that Castiel would hurry up and get his feathery ass over here and stop this crazy woman before things got even nastier. Alissa got up again and headed towards her. She held up the board for a shield as Alissa tried to go for another punch. Amber swung again but Alissa ducked out of the way as her first made its impact to Amber's gut causing her to stumble back as the air was knocked out of her lungs. "Castiel, where are you?" Amber wheezed, trying to keep her 'shield' held up.

Alissa was just about to go in for one more punch and Amber was bracing for it until a hand grabbed at her arm. She tried to yank it out of the grip but the grip was too strong. Alissa whipped around to see the face of Castiel. For a split second he was startled by the look of sheer anger that was on Alissa's face but it was quickly erased to one of determination. "Let me go, Castiel," Alissa commanded as she exhaled a quick angry huff.

"You need to calm down," Castiel replied still holding tight to her arm.

"Have you lost your **mind**?! She's a freaking demon! I swore the next time I came across those black eyed freaks, I would not hesitate to kill it," She turned to face him again, eyes stormy, and spoke to him with a low, threatening tone. "Now. Let. Me. Go. Castiel."

He almost did, but he shoved down that decision and held on. He gave her a stern expression and a definite answer. "I'm sorry but I can't do that. You need to calm down and think about what you're doing."

"I **know** what I'm doing. Do you? Let go," Alissa replied as she tried to once again break free. Castiel pulled her close to him with his arms wrapped around and clasped in front of her chest, holding her in place. "What the hell Castiel? What is this? "She struggled even harder, kicking, yelling, anything and everything just to break free. She lifted her legs up close to her chest as she leaned back against him then rocked forward, with the momentum she kicked back like a donkey would, her boots hitting him in the knees, causing him to lurch forward and drop that tight hold.

While Alissa was stalled, it gave Amber enough time to recover and get some needed air into her lungs. She grabbed the board and swung it like a baseball bat as fast and as hard as she could swing it. But just only grazed over Alissa's head and it would've made its mark if she hadn't moved out of the way once again. Amber then got the idea to just chuck it at her, run and hope for the best. She heard the thump of the board when it hit the gravel but didn't bother to turn around to see if it worked or not. She ran past Castiel and skidded to a stop. She knew that Alissa couldn't keep this up for long. As Alissa turned around to follow Amber, Castiel stood in front of her, he did not give her the chance to do anything else as he placed two fingers on her forehead and out like a light she was. He caught her just in time before she fell to the gravel.

As Castiel picked Alissa up and carried her bridal style, he looked back at Amber who was standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. "Are you alright?" He asked her as he walked closer to her.

"Yeah. I'm doing just fine," Amber replied shortly. "Not like I was getting my ass beat over here while you're who the hell knows where. By the way, where the fuck were you?! I had to take a freaking two by four and whack her with it-

"You what?" Castiel interjected as his facial expression changed to worry then to anger when he saw the injuries on her face, he quickly turned at Amber with a hard glare.

"Hey, no, don't you put that blame on me! I had to do **something** to give me a little time to get away from Miss Crazy. "

"I am here now," Castiel replied as they both walked up back to the house with an unconscious Alissa in his arms.

"Yeah. _**Now**_. It's not like I've been calling you or anything," she held the doors open leading into the mudroom and into the main part of the house after finding the hidden key that was stashed in the chicken coop. Once they brought her in the house, Castiel went into the living room and laid Alissa gently onto the couch, careful not to wake her. Even though that wouldn't happen, he still felt the need to do so. Amber plops down on one of the chairs to the loveseat, taking off her heels in the process. "And for future reference, don't piss off the Capricorn because holy shit can she do damage."

"Yes she can," Castiel mumbled to himself as he sat in the opposing chair, elbows above his knees that still hurt just a bit, his hands folded out in front as he gazed out looking to the faded light purple rug under his feet.

"What?" Amber asked while pulling the cord up to recline back in her chair.

"Hm?" Castiel hummed back glancing between Alissa and Amber as he followed her lead on reclining back.

"Never mind," she took a pause. "Right now, all I wanna do is relax and hopefully heal these wounds. If I fall asleep and she starts waking up, you get my ass up immediately. Not five minutes from then, **immediately**," Amber clarified, trying to get comfortable.

"Demons do not require sleep. Neither do angels," Castiel stated, he then looked back down on the floor, running his hands along his face like he was thinking about making a big decision.

"Yeah, yeah, Details. I still like the feeling of sleep thank you very much," she retorted back, flipping over so her back faced to him as she tried to imagine dozing off.

It was a few short hours later, the sun was starting to set, it was around six or seven in the evening and Alissa was starting to wake up. She slowly opened her sleepy eyes to look around at her surroundings but it only took a couple seconds for her to realize what happened and where she was. She abruptly sat up as all of the anger she had earlier started to flow back in again. Castiel and Amber were now sitting at the dining room table until they heard a few thumps of feet hitting the hardwood floor. They both turned towards the sound, Castiel was the first out his chair and over to Alissa's side as she came quickly stomping up, pissed off once again. He stepped in between both of them to stop something before it started. "Alissa wait. Stop and think before we do something we might regret later," Castiel reasoned with her while blocking her view of Amber who was now standing with hands on her hips and a look on her face that signified that she was partially done with the situation.

"Why the hell are you defending her in the first place?!" Alissa asked accusingly as she pushes Castiel out of her road, walking up to her and stopping within arm's reach, "How the hell can I even begin to trust you again? Huh? Answer me that," a bitter laugh escapes out of her mouth. "Oh look," Alissa hold out her right hand pretending to hold an object in it. "Here's your trust," Alissa then pretends to drop it, try to catch it and then imitates the sound of glass shattering. "_Oops_. Can't put that together again, now can I?" She put up a fake smile as those horrible words slithered along.

The words just kept pouring out. The way that she spoke and her facial expressions could be compared to a snarling wolf. Each word seemed to be laced with daggers or knives. The physical injuries Amber could deal with, it was the emotional ones that made her shut down. "You know. I've know you, for what? Twelve years now? Twelve years. Twelve. **Freaking**. Years. And not once have you tried to tell me," Another laugh echoes in the living room that seemed to turn ice cold as the verbal onslaught continued. "How fucking could you?! I trusted you! You were my **closest** friend and now that's out the damn window," Alissa took a moment to pause. "Wow. Who knew? Who knew what piece of work **you** are?"

Amber looked ready to break down and let that dam that was being held back, go. She tried to not let any of her emotions show what she was really feeling inside. Castiel couldn't take this anymore. He couldn't stand by and watch this all unfold. It was becoming too much, even for him. He forcefully stepped between and stood in front of Amber to shield her from anymore horrid words being slung her way. "Okay, that's **enough**!" Castiel's voice boomed in the small environment that caught both of them off guard. "There's absolutely no reason for this to happen. None. There's also no need for this kind of torment. Especially from **you**. She's been through so much already, like you have, **why** add more to it?"

He looked at Alissa carefully, his ocean orbs into her steely blues. She let out a loud huff before walking off to the kitchen. Finally having the courage to speak after that rapid fire of poison, Amber was able to get the courage she needed to speak out. "If I was going to hurt you then I already would have. I didn't tell you because Castiel specifically told **me** not to even breathe a word of it. I almost came close. I wanted so bad just to let everything out. I felt like I had to but if I did then, Castiel would have my hide. And on top of that can you honestly recall one moment where I didn't throw myself in the line of fire to protect you? Name one moment."

Alissa stopped dead in her trail and turned to face her. "How would I know if that was true or not? That could've all just been a cruel game to string me along then dump me someplace in the middle of freaking nowhere."

Now it was Amber's turn to get mad. "Are you seriously shitting me right now? Use some fucking common sense, Alissa! You would've known for a fact-For. A. Fact. If I was so called 'stringing you along'. You would've known from the get go if that was true or not."

Alissa just shook her head in disbelief. "Know what? I'm done. I'm through with all of this. This '_friendship_' never happened. Good fucking bye," she then started walking to the corner to go out to the mudroom.

Castiel jogged after her to try and get her to stop, "Alissa. Wait," he called. He followed her out to the garage where she was grabbing her duffle from the backseat. Once he ran down the small flight of steps and to the dark gray space, she was gone without a trace.

The next thing she knew, she was walking down the gravel driveway of good ole Bobby Singer's house. She stopped dead with a duffle hanging off of her shoulder, and looked around. She stood there in bewilderment, "What in the hell?" Why was she at Bobby's? How did she manage to get there?

* * *

_**A/N: WHOA, AMBER'S A DEMON. WHO KNEW? Didn't expect that, did ya?  
**__**~Cobalt**_


	9. Chapter 9-Confrontational Meetings

_**F-bombs may be present in this chapter**_

* * *

_**Second Ascension**_

_By CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 9/Confrontational Meetings

"_When you think your life is falling apart, it's usually falling together in disguise._"

~Charlotte Eriksson

"So you're saying that Amber, your best friend, is a **demon**?" Bobby sat at his old desk in the living room with a disbelieving look on his face. '_How the hell's that even possible_?' He thought to himself.

"Yes! That's what I'm trying to tell you!" Alissa paced back and forth in front of said desk while she held some paper towels to her healing gash on her cheek to hopefully stop the bleeding.

"If she's a demon, then wouldn't you think a little holy water and salt would've affected her?" Bobby argued back as he got up out of his chair to head to the kitchen to grab something.

"That's the **thing**. Those don't affect her but a Devil's Trap **will**. I saw it with my own eyes! She was stuck in the thing like a regular demon **would** be," Alissa slowly followed behind the scruffy hunter as he came back with bandages and rubbing alcohol. She offered her thanks, sat back on the couch and started cleaning the wound. It looked worse that what it really was, no stitches, which is pretty good since she got clocked by a wood board. "I'm telling you Bobby' A small hiss of pain escaped her mouth as she applied the rubbing alcohol to the wound. "She freaking **admitted **that she was a demon! She said and I quote 'Of course, the only thing that I'm **not **immune to is a freaking Devil's trap' now tell me that doesn't raise red flags?"

Bobby sat back in his chair as he went back to look over he lore book that was sitting in front of him. "I don't know Alissa. Something ain't makin' sense."

She let out a low sigh as she went back over the injury again. "I don't know either dude. I'm just...I'm done," she got up off the couch to throw away the paper towels, putting away the rubbing alcohol, and walked back into the room. "I don't want to deal with anymore demons at this point."

She plopped down once again on the couch and sprawled out to finally take a break. It's been an eventful couple days. _Especially_ yesterday, the sob fest in the barn, then the werewolf hunt and finally finding out that your best friend in a demon! The very species that started this whole hunting journey to begin with!

''_Maybe she's the thing that got it rolling in the first place.._?" The small voice the back her head spoke quietly. All that seemed to do was bring up more anger and hatred aimed at this whole situation. "_What if she was the one who killed my dad then my mom? Why did she do it in the first place?"_

"_She didn't need a reason! Demons do it for shit and kicks!_" Another voice in her head argued.

"_But she wouldn't do that!_" The first voiced reasoned.

"_How do you know that?_" The second voiced spit back.

She didn't want to start this up again anytime soon. It wore her out after a while of yelling and screaming. Shoving away those thoughts she shuffled closer against the cushions, ready for a nap, she would've gotten away with it, if it wasn't for the quick knocking at the door. She laid there for a moment until another round of knocking sounded. Casting a silent curse, she rolled off the couch, taking a moment to look at Bobby but she noticed that he disappeared. "Probably went off to go look for more lore," She quietly told herself. She then got up and walked towards the door slowly. On the count of three, she whipped open the door and before she even spoke a word, a rush of bright red and blonde hair invaded her vision as arms wrapped around her in a tight hug, but it only a took a second to realize who it was. Grabbing the woman's upper arms she pushed back with a hard shove which caused the woman to stumble away a few steps. A hurt expression flashed across her face. "What are you doing here, Amber?" Alissa asked with annoyance laced in her voice as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, eyes narrowed and a firm stance.

"Castiel and I looked **everywhere** for you! Finally, I found you here. You just suddenly vanished. The hell dude?" Alissa could tell that she seemed relieved in some way.

"Why would a **demon** be worried about me? They don't give a shit, they never did and they certainly never will!" She spat that the woman standing outside on the porch. She was ready to slam the door in her face because she honestly didn't feel like dealing with all of this shit again.

"Well this one does!" Amber returned fire. She looked just about annoyed as Alissa did. "Can we not do this again?" She asked while placing a hand on her hip. "I don't want to have any more damage than there already is," Finishing the rest of the thought in her head.

A sigh escapes as she drops her arms. "Yeah...I guess," She steps over to the side towards the door to let Amber in.

Amber sends a small smile her way but fades in an instant when she realizes what happened. "You little-" Amber starts but stops when she sees Alissa walking away with a smirk on her face. "Alissa, get me out of here!"

Alissa kept walking towards the living room, went to the kitchen, grabbed a Pepsi out of the 'fridge, went back to the living room and plopped on the couch once again; her face still holding that smirk proudly. "Yo, Bobby! You caught somethin' in one of your traps!" She yelled out to the older hunter where ever he may be in the house.

"Alissa. Anne. _Now_," Amber hissed with a look of fear shown loud and clear across her face. There was also a hint of 'I'm-going-to-wring-your-neck' mixed in there too.

"Will you quit yer yellin'?" Bobby reprimands. His words echoing against the wood walls and stomping boots on the basement stairs. Once he got to the top and turned to face where the girls were at, he looked up and noticed Amber standing right where a Devil's Trap was painted under the rug. "What are you doing here, Amber?" Said blonde now crossed her arms in front of her chest and set her head to the side. She blinked and instead of bright green eyes staring back, it was pitch black orbs filling that space. Blinking once again, they returned to their original state. Bobby's eyes widened slightly as a hash swear erupted the small space. "Balls."

The emerald hues shined against the sunlight filtering through the leaves of the large woods. Muddy grays and browns scattered the ground, clear blues of the sky with bright whites of the clouds lazily moving along their uncertain paths. The birds are chirping their songs while a soft, cool breeze brushing the grasses and weeds. Everything was calm, peaceful even, until a flutter of wings against fabric cut through it all.

"Castiel," A female, modulated voice took only a second to recognize the new visitor. "I've been wondering what has been taking you so long…" A friendly smile appeared on her face while she sat on a mossy log that was halfway buried in the green grass. She wore a thin long sleeved, slightly see through, purple shirt with a black tank top underneath her somewhat thin but muscular build. A pair of dark wash jeans and black two-inch heels covered her lower half, her legs crossed out in front. Her overall complexion was fair, light pink lips to match her light blue eyes and overall rounded features.

"Azafreal," Castiel returned the pleasantry with the smallest of smiles. "It has been quite a while hasn't it?" He asked her in contentment, sounding more of a rhetorical question than what it was meant to be.

She smiled timidly, curiously admiring his expression for a moment before attempting to somehow assure him that this meeting was necessary. "I know that you will want to hurry back to make sure everything's all falling according to our plan," She paused, lacing her hands together as a hesitant sigh escaped. "But we need to have a talk about your situation," she then motioned with her hand awkwardly to the open area next to her. "Please, have a seat beside me."

Castiel's face changed to meet Azafreal's. He figured this would come eventually, he just didn't think it would be so soon. He stood in his spot, hesitant for a second, until he finally took her on that offer. He walked to the said spot and sat down beside her, placing his elbows to his knees, copying her hand movements as well. He gazed out into the wilderness spread out across the land while preparing for what she had to say.

Azafreal thought to herself for a moment trying to figure out how to start this conversation. "First off," she started finally, 'How is she...doing? Now, I mean." She asked, staring down at the ground with concern in her voice. "Is she alright?" She lifted her head up to look at him. "I felt some distress and I wish I could've gone to her but...I couldn't," Azafreal paused once again. "I didn't want to put her in anymore danger than what she's already in."

Castiel leaned back, placing his hands on either side of him on the log, looking up to the sky above, watching the clouds roll by briefly before answering her. "She is fine," He let out soft sigh. "For the time being that is," Azafreal's face changed to minor worry, in which Castiel tried to reassure her that things would continue along their ideal plan. "Everything is going to be all right, Aza," He leaned forward again, scooting closer. He put a hand on her shoulder, sending a genuine smile in her direction. She then sent her own small smile in return. The use of the nickname always seemed to calm her down, especially from the people she was close to, when she was worried about something.

"I hope so...And you know that we can't have a repeat of what happened last time, correct?" Her question came across more like a statement than anything else. She knew what he meant, she knew precisely. It only begs the question, did she wish to face this threat again or will this be the time when it all goes down the tube?

His face changed just at the mention of what happened. The memories started to resurface, causing his eyes to darken and a grave expression emerged in the process. He tried to push those memories back but they started to become stronger, surging forward. His eyes were starting to prick with hot tears and a couple almost spilled out if it wasn't for Azafreal rubbing comforting circles on his upper back. Quickly wiping them away, he forced himself to take back control of his emotions. He didn't want to go down that road again. It was becoming too painful. It was hard enough the first time through let alone a few more. "_We know that it's coming, we both know what __**it**__ is. __**When**__, is still up in the air, and we need to be ready for that strike,_" He concluded in his mind before lifting his head up to look his friend in the eye. "You had...something else to talk about as well," Castiel stated carefully.

She studied the look on his face, clapped her hands to her thighs and stood up abruptly. She walked a few steps then turned back around to see Castiel's expression of confusion; head titled and eyes squinted. She chuckled to herself at the sight before her. "Would you care to take a stroll with me? The scenery out here is lovely," Azafreal offered, turning back around and leisurely walked away, leaving Castiel with no option but to follow her through the large trees along the well-worn path.

"You know Alissa, if you wanted me to prove to Bobby that I was a demon, I could've fucking levitated shit or spun my head in circles. You know, the "usual" demon stuff," Amber suggested while sitting on the floor, cross legged, in the middle of the trap with a bored look on her face.

"Eh..." Alissa shrugged her shoulders while leaning against the side of the stairs, arms crossed in front of her chest once again. 'What's done is done. Can't change the past now," Alissa glanced around, noticing that Bobby was silent, sitting back at his desk chair drinking whiskey out of a glass, watching the conversation go back and forth.

"Now, for as much as I _love_ being in this little chickadee cage, can we **please** get to the more pressing matter at hand? I have some explaining to do and I didn't track you down like a damn Blue tick Coonhound to fucking blabber on about something we already **know**."

"_We_ never included me until yesterday!" Alissa shook her head a little in anger.

"Now I can say it's better late than never, right?" Amber joked but it was useless as it wasn't going to get her anywhere except a glare in her direction. "Alright, alright. I admit that was horrible, but I should get point for trying, shouldn't I?" Again, she only receives the silent treatment with a 'look' to match. "Okay fine. You wanted answers, right? I'm here to provide them. What d'you wanna know?"

"How did you become a demon?" She asked quickly to the woman still sitting on the floor. It was now or never to know the truth.

"I, uh, ended up selling my soul," She answered. "Just about like every other demon out there."

"Why? Why'd you do it?" Another question asked as soon as the answer was given.

"To save someone I really care about. Isn't that why most people sell their souls in the first place?" Amber retorted back, less than enthused about the barrage of questions.

"And who would that be?"

"For my grandfather," her facial expression turned gloomy at the unexpected memory that resurfaced. Quickly as it came, she shoved it down and continued on.

"How are you not affected by salt and holy water but a Devil's Trap works?"

She hesitated a second, unsure if she should reveal that information or not. Making a split second decision, she made up her mind. "Binding link carved on the body."

"Aw, hell," Bobby mumbled to himself as he poured more whiskey into his glass and went back to researching.

The back and forth from question to question lasted 10 minutes but it quickly took a sharp when the next one was out in the open. "What poor woman did you trick to possess her?"

Amber's face changed again and she started to become livid. Her eyes darkened and a sneer formed on her lips. "That is **none** of your concern!"

"Seems I touched a nerve," Alissa paused. "I'm sure she didn't want to be a vessel for a demon but I guess she didn't have a choice. You took that from her. She was just doing fine all before you came along and ruined it for her. Now she's probably scared shitless of everything she saw. Good going."

Before Alissa could continue, Amber interjected with rage. "You didn't even **know** her, so don't act like it!"

A fake smile crept onto Alissa's face. "And you did? Wow, that's seemingly **hard** to believe. You must've suffered through some messed up shit down there to think you two would become friends. I would've guessed she was considered more like a chew toy or even a doll. But hey," She shrugged her shoulders, "what do I know? I'm only a human."

She could feel tears welling up in her eyes and did all she could possibly do to not let them fall. "Don't talk about her as if she's a _thing_ or _it_!" Amber yelled at the woman who was lazily pacing with her hands clasped behind her back.

Bobby got up out of his desk chair and walked over to Alissa. He lightly grabbed one of her arms to drag her with him. She turned around to see his face showing worry which made her follow immediately. Bobby led her into the kitchen, once they got around the corner they stopped and he turned to look at her once again. "What's up Bobby?" She asked curiously.

"I think you need to lay off a bit, don't you think?" He asked her with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Why?" She returned a little defensive.

"Because she was human at one point too," He reasoned.

"That was how long ago though!" She spat back with an arm raised pointing back into the living room. "We got to get black eyes out of her so she doesn't have to suffer anymore! It's not right that someone has to go through that, especially in the hands of a demon!"

They tried to keep their voices to a whisper but it didn't help much because Amber heard every spoken word through where she was. She got up from the ground and dusted herself off as the words bounced back and forth.

"I understand that. But what's to say that after she's exorcised that the meat suit isn't already dead? Then it would've been for nothing."

"Then she would be back down in Hell where she belongs! Just like the rest of them!" Amber shifted awkwardly on her feet throughout the whole conversation. It was then a solid five minutes before Bobby and Alissa re-entered the room again. Alissa wasn't as pissed off as earlier, it now resembled grumpiness. Bobby seemed a little relieved that whatever was spoken was taken into consideration. He grabbed a chair from the other side of the desk and set it between that and the couch. She walked over to the stairwell, stopping right in front of the bright spray painted Devil's Trap.

Amber searched her face to see if there was anything she could pick up on. Besides a grump, there was still some trust issues that needed to be worked out which she knew for a fact would take up to years to gain back. It wouldn't be easy and she would work her ass off to get it back or be damned. Not that it would be the first time being damned and all, but still. "So," Amber dragged out. "You gonna let me outta here or?"

Alissa contemplates her options a second until she gives a heavy sigh in defeat. "Fine. But on the condition of not hiding shit. I'm warning you here; you slip up, I'm burning that link and exorcising your ass. Hear me?" She goes over, pulling a knife that was put into her back pocket, scratching it with her knife. "Happy now?"

Amber's eyes slightly widened." Y-yes ma'am," she gives a mock salute and steps over the now broken trap. "Much appreciated," Amber then goes to sit on the chair provided to finally relax. After a couple minutes of silence she finally speaks up. "You know it's kinda funny," a little smile appears on her lips as she looks up to Alissa as she walks over to the couch, taking the cushion closest to the demon. A now confused look on her face. "Just how much Castiel seems to care about you," Bobby walked into the room again from the kitchen, handing Amber and Alissa a bottle of beer each and sits back to his desk once again. He tries to stay out of the conversation because he feels that this wasn't his 'battle' to fight in but he'll be there to get in between if it ever goes south.

Castiel and Aza walked quietly down the dirt path in front of them. It was such a wonderful day. They walked in comfortable silence but each of them had heavy thoughts running through their minds. "Have you ever thought about what the future looks like?" Azafreal questioned, looking out ahead then to Castiel.

He knew that this question was obvious. He was about to say something of the sort but decided against it and went along to humor her. "All the time," he replied. There was so much to think about. Just one small notion here, a word there that can change something so **drastically** until that moment comes, you don't know how large of an impact it really caused. Could you really go back and fix those little things and hope for the best in the long run? It very well could be.

Her mind was also filled with thoughts of what was yet to come. She needed to figure out a way to make this all work, but, the question was how. How can you make sure that everything was going to be fine and **not** end up like it did some many times before hand? "_What can we do? If just one part is shifted, another moves out of place. It's one giant, ill-fitting puzzle,"_ Azafreal thought. She looked straight ahead to see a clearing coming up. Turning her head back towards Castiel, she stopped just in front of him. "Maybe there's a way for you to not carry this burden all on your own," Aza suggested.

Amber takes a swig of beer before she continues her thought. "It's almost like he's in love with you or something," She then shakes her head. "Hey, you got your first crush. Go you!" Alissa sent her a little glare in return, making the already tense atmosphere jump.

Castiel stopped as well. He raised an eyebrow to her and by the look on her face, she had an idea already formed in her head and something told him that he wasn't going to like it. He was almost too afraid to ask. "What do you mean?"

She sent a nervous smile in his direction based on the cheerless expression on his face that ironically seemed to mirror her own. "Castiel… If this had been someone else in your position, I don't think you'd want them to have to go through this alone. So please, just ask for some assistance from people who surround _her_," she said. "What we're doing now doesn't seem to be working."

Stuffing his hands in his trench coat pockets, he took a deep breath inward, lifting his head to the sky above then slowly releasing it through his nose. Gazing back down and straight ahead, he too saw the clearing which gave him the decision to keep going. He was quiet for a couple minutes, letting his mind wander about. In that clearing was something that was special to him and she knew it. It was one of his favorite places in the whole world and nothing could take that away from him because it was locked away in the deepest part of his brain. There were also other memories in that space that he never wanted to witness the first time, let alone a few dozen more. They were unthinkable, too much to bear. It's a wonder how he's still standing and being able to converse with others; how is his brain still able to function correctly?

Once again they headed to the clearing as the sun filtered through the trees, a cool breeze blowing by. "I never quite understood," Castiel spoke, breaking the silence between them. "Why did he need the grace? Why specifically from her? He could have chosen **anyone **who hadangel's grace," he didn't realize what he said until a second later when he flipped his eyes up to look at Azafreal. She seemed a little taken aback by the comment for it wasn't one to be spoken aloud.

Slowing down her pace just a small step behind him. "It was a way back, or so we thought," she said quietly, enough for him not to hear. She wanted to help, but there was only so much one person-or angel-could do before it gets too out of hand. Castiel has a large heart which she respects him for it as it aids them in situations like these that she simply cannot comprehend. She knows that it's always in the right place and that can also be one of his greatest weaknesses. He can care too much, not being able to let go when it's time to. She also believes that this is one of the main reasons, if not the only reason, he is in this situation in the first place.

Finally making it there, they stop at the very center, admiring the view and the sunshine gazing down. Castiel turns around to look back at Azafreal who was looking back to the way they came with her hands folded behind her back. He then took the moment to speak up. "If this is something that has to be done, then so be it," He let out an exhausted sigh. "_I don't want to keep doing this, but I have to. For all of us_," he thought to himself.

Azafreal turned around to look at him and on his face was a genuine smile. She was confused at first as how fast his expression had changed but she guessed it was something about a certain someone. He fell head over heels for that someone and while Aza was pleased that this supported their current mission, she was immensely concerned that it effected the integrity of the work being produced. She walked up to where he was standing and patted his shoulder lightly, but awkwardly, in an attempt to show him some reassurance. "Thank you," he responded lightly.

"We just have to follow our plan. If any problems arise or we need to analyze another variable in this, please come contact me again. Farewell for now, Castiel."

Amber couldn't take it anymore, she was fidgeting too much. "Well, hey, I better go tell Castiel that you're here so he doesn't freak out that he can't find his one true love," Amber got up from the chair a little too quickly for her liking. She then looked to Bobby with a blank look. "Thank you Bobby for the beer. I wish I could stay longer, but ya know, gotta let the boss know," Without wasting another moment she sent one last look to her friend, turned around and headed towards the kitchen. She walked out the backdoor and the only thing she heard before it went black was the shattering of the beer bottle on the steps behind her.

* * *

_**A/N:Damn..I really stepped up my writing game! I felt that the ending was a little rushed. That could have been me because I really wanted to hurry and get this done. I also feel that once we step into the Cas/Aza chat, we stepped into something deeper. We freaking plunged into it. Btw, you pronounce Azafreal's full name as "Uh-zay-free-ull" and her nickname as "Ay-zuh"  
**_

_**What the hell happened to Amber? Why is Alissa still so mean to Amber? Aren't they bestest of friends?**_

_**~Cobalt**_


	10. Chapter 10-Into a Tomorrow

_**A/N:Possible F-Bomb present.**_

* * *

_**Second Ascension**_  
_by CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 10/Into a Tomorrow

"_Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?_"

~L.M. Montgomery

The silence seemed too loud while a pin drop would be deafening in this space as it held that feeling of being frozen in time. Where was this place? Was there even one at all? Her eyelids felt heavy, her body was sluggish, and straining to hear any source of sound was beyond useless. Color breached the void of her vision when she finally came to; a dull beige of the ceiling. Slowly she turned her head to the right to face along the bland colored walls was an old, three drawer, wooden dresser siting against it holding up various photo frames filled with unknown places inside them. Her eyes became blurry and would only seem to focus every couple of blinks. Scanning around the rest of the room from where she was supposedly laying-now sitting up-she noticed the cluttering of inspirational quotes, sayings, and other photo frames filled with foreign memories of nostalgia along the mossy, left side wall. She scooted towards that side of the bed covered in rustic colored sheets and an oak bedframe with matching head and footboard spread out underneath her. It took a couple seconds later until her warning bells started blaring in her head and her vision finally cleared. She had to get out, but not without some sort of protection against what's just beyond that wooden door directly in front of her first. Quickly, she made a checklist of her physical appearance of what could be seen, she made sure that everything on her person was perfectly intact; bright red dress, Leo zodiac sign necklace, and her black, three inch heels.

Flinging her feet off the side of the mattress as her heels made a clacking sound from the contact of the forest green tile floor, she hurriedly began scouting for any possible object that could be and will be used as a weapon. The first place she checked was the little bedside table next to her, but when she rummaged through it all, nothing useful could be found; just some loose change and some folded up papers. Continuing on down the line she went, searching in every single cupboard, cabinet, and dresser drawer, while taking her heels off and putting them on the bed in the process for they would be too noisy for an escape, trying to find _something_ she could use. There was only one more space left to look and it was the one thing that seemed to draw her in; the oak chest sitting in front of the footboard. Kneeling down, she lifted up the top only to be greeted with a forest green blanket that has definitely seen its better days as there were holes littering the fabric. Pulling that back, she dug deeper through the contents only to be stopped momentarily by a leather bound book with a yellowed piece of parchment taped to the front. Written in formal cursive, read the words "The Brady Bunch of the Supernatural Photo Album" on it. The handwriting looked a little familiar to her, but she couldn't remember why at the present moment and she was becoming curious to what was inside until she then snapped herself out of it. This wasn't the time and place to even begin thinking about that; she had to get out.

Pushing the book aside, she sifted through the chest until something caught her eye, making her stop once again. Taking the other items off of it, she brought the object to light. Wrapped in a mahogany frame, was a picture taken on a bright sunny day. The people in it were happy as could be and she was taken aback by who those people were. It was her; a shorter haired, more rough around the edges, version of her, but her overall. Next to her, touching cheek to cheek was the last person she would _ever_ expect to see; Dean. He had the same look in his green eyes as she did in hers, they were darker than she remembered them being. This wasn't possible, right? How can it? So many similar questions started bubbling up in her mind, only she shut them down immediately because she was becoming distracted. She had to keep going. She put the frame on the pile of the other stuff that was found in the chest and kept digging deeper. It was another minute more, coming up empty handed. "Shit," letting the curse slip under her breath as she got up from her spot, putting everything back the way everything was. No weapon found. Unless-She looked back to the once forgotten black heels and the idea sprang to life.

Quickly grabbing them, she turned and headed to the door to where she carefully turned the knob and pulled the door closer to her, trying not to make a sound. Peeking her head out, checking if the coast was clear, she stepped out into the hallway where bricks were stacked halfway up the wall while white, Carrera marble filled the rest to the ceiling and similar wooden doors sat to either side. Closing the door behind her, she walked along the wall, watching out for anyone to stroll on by, in which she would be ready for them just in case. Just like the room she previously woke up in, everything was silent up until she heard the click of gun's hammer and a gruff voice commanding "Don't. Move," behind her. Freezing in her tracks she gripped the heels a little tighter, ready to use them when need be. "Put the heels down, and turn around slowly," The voice ordered. She knew that voice, just who it was escaped her for the moment.

Doing what was instructed bent down to put the heels on the floor only she spun rapidly around, stabbing the man, embedding the heel into the right upper arm, causing him to drop his gun to the black and white, sidewalk-like, tile floor and emit a pained scream. Moving back from him, she held the other black heel in her hand at the ready to do it again, without hesitation. She broke her focus, after she realized who was in front of her. "Sam?" She uttered, completely dumfounded.

The man in question lifted his head to see were the new voice came from and when he did, completely and utterly shell-shocked. He stood there in disbelief staring at the short blonde headed, chartreuse eyed, and bright red dressed woman holding the heel as if it was a knife. The look on her face said everything; she was confused and didn't know what was going on, didn't know why she was here. That question jumped out immediately in his mind. Why is she here? _How_ is she here? She can't be when there isn't any possible way she could be when-He didn't finish the thought for those painful memories would start to resurface again and he definitely did want that again. The only way he could possibly rationalize what was happening before him was that this was all in a dream; a sick and torturous dream that his subconscious seemingly created for him. If that was the case, then he would just have to play along until he wakes up the following morning and carry on like it never happened. There was a small lump in his throat that started to form just as he thought and spoke of the name he never believed, nor would he ever until now, to be used again. "Amber?"

Amber stared at the astounded man wearing a black, V-neck, T-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of dark, steel-toed, work boots. The last time she had seen him as way back at Bobby's place when he and Alissa were on Skype and from what she could remember, his hair wasn't past his shoulders; his bangs were just long enough to tuck behind his ears, and a little bit lighter too. Those zultanite shades in his eyes reflecting the low and somber light in a way in which would be described as disconcerted as he lifted his head to gaze directly at her. The expression on his face worried her for she felt that there was something wrong regarding her. Was it just her or the situation surrounding her? Was it this place she was currently in and just where is it? She didn't realize that both of them became silent and when her eyes roamed over the details about him that have changed, they settled upon the heel which was still embedded in his upper arm. "Oh my God, Sam!" she exclaimed as she rushed over to accesses the injury that was caused by her so-called 'ninja skills'. It didn't look to bad from what she could see but once that heel was taken out, it could very well be a totally different story. "I got to get this out. First, you're going to have to either bend down or sit on the floor," Amber instructed, sending a quick glance up to his face seeing that he had broken out of his temporary haze, then back down to the lodged heel. "Because you're at least two feet taller than me, you giant."

A little quirk sprung from the side of Sam's lips at the nickname she had used for him. It may not seem like much for others, but for Sam it signified something for both his and Amber's friendship. They had gotten along pretty well during the years they had known each other and it never went past a platonic into a romantic relationship which they were both comfortable with anyways. Sam and Amber were more like brother and sister in terms of family versus anything else. They've always been close and would be there whenever someone needed to talk, no matter what it was. He decided to shove those thoughts aside, concluding what his earlier idea of this being a dream as truth for now and decided to just play along. "Uh, I believe there's a bathroom just down here," Sam informed her, looking up to the rest of the dull hallway in front of him.

"All righty," Amber answered, taking a step back to give Sam his breathing room once she realized how close he was to him, looked up in the direction down the hall and back up to his face. "Lead the way then," she gestured with her hand out in front of her signaling for him to take point in which he gladly did, until he stopped short when he remembered that his gun was knocked to the floor. Sheepishly, he asked her if she could pick it up for him since it would make it awkward for him to bend down to pick up with a heel embedded in his arm and risk causing more muscle damage than what there already is. She complied, walking over to pick up after it was precariously slid down the hall. Flicking the safety back on, she held it in her right hand, her heel in the other as she briskly paced over to Sam's side once again and handed off the firearm. He took it graciously and stuck it in his waistband the best he could using one hand while they ambled down the dull corridors. As they continued, it became a wonder to Amber as to how Sam knew _exactly_ where to go when everything looked the same from the doors, the walls, the lights, even the strange symbol on the doors itself creating-for her at least-one large maze. While there was supposed to be a comfortable silence surrounding the two of them, it felt more of a feeling of great presagious, this deep foreboding sensation, and Amber couldn't discern _why_ she was experiencing this nagging emotion both in the pit of her stomach and in the back of her mind.

She didn't break out of the intercommunications of thoughts in her brain until she bumped into the back of Sam, who had stopped in the path they had traveled by a door similar to the others. Amber took a step back from him, muttering an apology when he turned half-way around with a subtle smile on his lips as he held the heel in its place, announcing that they have arrived to their destination. She then mentally scolded herself from the embarrassment she had caused herself for not realizing what was happening in her general surroundings but quickly shoved it aside once she got her mind back on track to the task on hand: removing the planted shoe she somehow managed to stab him with in the upper arm. "Everything you need is back there," she heard him say when she entered through the threshold into the small bathroom. It was quaint little room with fern tinctured walls and Bubinga woodwork planks encompassing a large, oak cabinet with two drawers sat along the furthest wall while a small white sink, a medium sized mirror just hanging above it, and a toilet were all placed to the immediate left past the doorway. On the right hand side was an elongated shower and bathtub combination with a matching white curtain stretching from the door, all the way to the very back of the room. She set the heel that was in her hand underneath the sink before she sauntered to the oak doors as she listened to the shuffling and squeaking of Sam sitting down on the toilet lid just after he took the gun out of his waistband and set it carefully behind the faucet, while she looked through the space to find the contents she needed for the job.

Once she found all that was required, Amber turned and shut the cabinet's doors and headed over to the sink to start working. "So, let's get this thing out, shall we?" She questioned him with light enthusiasm and a quick smile to which he responded with a nod and a similar reaction. Grabbing some clean paper towels off the roll she found, she pressed them around the injury. Sam's response of sucking in a hissed breath through his teeth didn't go unnoticed, lifting her eyes to gauge his expression quickly then shifted them back down to try and focus on what she was doing. "I'll have it out in a sec," she commented, pushing more paper towels underneath the already blood soaked sleeve of his shirt. It surprised her that there was not any blood running down his arm yet due to how large the wound around the heel was. Probably once the heel's out, it would start gushing like crazy.

"No, no," Sam started, waving his hand in dismissal to her statement. He could handle this at least. It's not like he couldn't handle pain since being a hunter comes with the requirement of all things pain and injury related. It also wasn't the first time he had to be stitched up on the job or stitched up in general. "There's no rush," he added just as his mind started drifting to long ago memories of past hunts and how Amber was the one who would always be the mom to both him and his brother. It was funny when she would scold Dean for something mundane (leaving a pile of clothes on the floor or papers strewn across a table) that he did wrong, which she would get a sarcastic response from him in return until she said something back resulting him in not having a comeback. It was always fun when she was around not matter what was happening, she would try to make everyone laugh and have a good time. He smiled at some of the nostalgia bubbling up in his mind but was snapped out of it when Amber spoke through the quiet that befallen the room they occupied.

"So, this place sure is humble with the gray, brown, and black," she said while cutting the sleeve to get better access to the area. She could deal with silence, the quietness of everything, but she would much rather be talking with people around her and enjoying the conversations, getting to know people and possibly make another friend, two even three in the process instead of just existing in the space.

Sam recovers quickly from his haze and sending out a chuckle, casting down his head then quickly raises it to look at Amber. "Yeah, I'll say," he states. He thought the same thing when he and Dean ventured through the Bunker the night they found it. It needed to be touched up in certain spots from it just sitting dormant for how many years before it was opened back up to see the light of day again. "That's the Men of Letters I guess; have everything more business-like than homey," he turned his head down to look at her careful and steady hands at work.

She stopped momentarily to step away to get some pads ready for when she pulled out the heel and then went back over in front of him again. "Men of Letters?" Amber asked curiously.

A puzzled expression appeared on his face when he lifted his head again to view hers while partially cocking his head to the side where his long, brown, strands followed the motion. "Don't you remember?"

She felt she was missing a great chunk of highly important information which, for a hunter, wasn't something to get into. Missing important details could literally turn into a Life or Death situation, and no one wants that. She decided to fall back on her tried and true way of getting what any source of information she needs; just play along and hope for the best. "No, I guess I don't. Can you, maybe, refresh my memory?" She asked him.

"Uh, sure," he answered. "They were basically a historical society built of scholars, philosophers, writers, researchers-you name it, dealing with the supernatural. Just anything that couldn't be explained or known to man through normal means of science," Sam explained to her the easiest way he could.

"Whoa," she said, surprised.

"You also couldn't get in if you were a hunter because to them, they considered hunters to be a lower class apparently for whatever reason, but if somehow they deemed you worthy, they would share their topmost secrets and become a member," he added.

"Huh, that's kinda stupid. It's understandable, but stupid. So not only do they have all of these 'mysteries' stashed away, there's this giant building to hold it all, which I'm assuming is their hideout?" Amber questioned.

"Their underground bunker," Sam corrected.

"Bunker? Oh that's pretty cool," she marveled at the idea of all of that hidden mysteries just waiting to be discovered. Who knew how much information could be discovered and how it can be used for the better?

Sam then retreats to the inside of his mind as he wonders if this 'Amber' in front of him at this moment in time, is the Amber he knew when they found this very bunker all those years ago. He shifts his eyes to the heel still in his arm, up to her face to hold for a mere few seconds, but turned his head back down to the ground in front of him as his mind started thinking about the old memories again. His face seems to form a little smile but it never reached his eyes. "I guess it's been a while since you stopped by, hasn't it?" He asked aloud, not really realizing the question was meant for his mind and not into the open.

She held a confused look on her face at what he was talking about but since she was still fishing for any and all answers she could get out of him, she decided to continue to playing along. "I guess it has," she replied back. "Okay, I need to take this out, so are you ready?" She asked, quickly changing the subject. Receiving a nod from Sam, Amber put her hands around the heel while she told Sam to press the pads against the wound and to keep still. With a hard pull, trying to wiggle it out, the heel was free from the confines of Sam's arm, to which his only response was a grunt of pain as he kept tight pressure to stop any oncoming bleeding.

"Awesome! That's finally out. I'm sure that feels so much better," she told him.

Another minute of silence passes as they both retreat to their thoughts. One is reminiscing the good old days when everything felt right in the world, no impending doom looming over everyone's shoulders. Such a peaceful time once it all settled in, but that was before the pain of the harsh reality of leading this life set in to where it always seemed to sneak up when least expected. The other one delved deep into the swirling pool of possibilities of what the Men of Letters found, what secrets they found and maybe, there was something that could help not only her, but others she was close to as well. The silence between them wasn't tense in the slightest and felt more companionable than anything else.

"It's good to see you again, Amber," Sam spoke absently as his eyes circled a general area on the floor, not quite concentrating to one spot.

Amber went rigid for a millisecond, she became puzzled and since she was too afraid to ask what he meant by it, she decided to start stitching up his arm instead. "It's nice to see you too, Sam," she answered him. "I could've sworn it was about a month or two ago, back at Bobby's, your hair was just past your ears and now it's already down to your shoulders," she stated, which caught his attention, only he tried not show it. "What have you been eating to make your hair grow that fast? I mean seriously," she joked.

Sam chuckled despite being perplexed on why she had said Bobby's place when that wasn't possible. "Just the usual greens," something was definitely not right, he couldn't figure out what, making him all the more confused, if not just a bit annoyed.

"Must've added something when you weren't looking when you bought them," she joked. "Because I don't think anyone's hair grows that fast!"

His laughing smile softens as he turned his head to face her again. "Normally, no I guess not. Then again, since when are we normal?"

"True, and there we go," she finalized while cleaning up her workspace. "You're all set."

Sam nodded his head then gazed down to look at the finished product of being stabbed by a black heel, of all things. The stitches were covered with a cloth pad and wrapped with gauze, including the ripped shirt as well. "Thank you."

She glances over to him and back to the supplies she was taking care of. "You're welcome," she lifts her head to look directly at him. "Sorry about the, uh, stabbing you with a heel," she apologized, going back to her earlier task.

He shakes his head, shrugging his shoulders while wincing at the regretful movement. "It's all right. You don't need to," he dismisses her apology. "I've been stabbed with worse. Don't think it'll be the last time either. Now, I just need to remember that women's shoes count as weapons," he stops short after realizing what he just said, followed by another chuckle. "Never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth."

Amber picks up her supplies while walking back to the cabinet in the back corner and sticks them in the correct places where she found them. "When it comes to me, anything's a weapon," she thought he said something to her but she wasn't sure because at the same time, she heard the toilet seat make a noise as he got up, stretching his leg muscles after sitting in one place for so long. "You say something?" She asked without looking back.

"What? No. Just trying not to pull the stitches," he tells her a little too quickly for her liking but she disregards it for now.

Finally packing and throwing everything away, she turned back and walked over to him, checking over to make sure it what she did was still in place. "Definitely don't want to do that."

"I'll try my best," Sam's face shifted as if he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, hey. I need to stop at the library for something. Wanna tag along?" He asks her nonchalantly.

The question caught her off guard. Rarely was she ever invited to tag along to go anywhere. Someone was always leaving her behind whether it was accidental or out of some sort of spite and she hated it. Amber never knew or understand why they left. Was it her? Did she do something wrong? If she did, what was the very thing she did to make everyone leave her? "Uh, sure. I just need to clean these heels up first since I don't have any other footwear," she shifted her eyes down to the heels then up to Sam's eyes again. "So, if you don't mind waiting a bit," her statement was opened ended, making it sound more like a question.

Sam sends her a tight smile followed by a short nod. "Oh, yeah, sure. I don't mind," he heads towards the door before flipping back around to look at her. "I'll be right outside the door then," he tells her before he finishes the rest of the way out with his shoulders slightly drooping as he shut the door behind him.

Amber wastes no second longer in cleaning those heels. It took longer than she had anticipated but she got them to where wanted them. It wasn't perfect, it was at least presentable. "Better check myself out here," she mumbled as she stood in front of the mirror. She never got the chance to look at herself when she woke up, she thought now would be the best time to take that opportunity. Taking a tube of lipstick out of her bra she stashed for safekeeping, she felt it was time for a redo of her lips. She didn't want to walk out with smudged lips, it would look odd. After finalizing her appearance, she headed out, closing the door behind her as she turns to face Sam who was leaning against the wall waiting patiently. "All ready," she notifies.

He jolts at the sudden sound of a voice but tries to play it off like he's pushing off the wall he was leaning against. She saw this and decided not to say anything but in her mind she kept thinking he should be use to people sneaking up on him and that shouldn't have spooked him as bad as it did. He must really be off his game. Wonder what happened? Sam turned to her, jerking his head to the side. "All right, let's go," he tells her with a happier tone that made her assume something was wrong and made a mental note for later as she followed him down the halls.

It wasn't long after they started walking that she felt now would be the time to get a few more answers out of him. Who knows when the next time will be? "Hey, Sam?" She starts off, immediately receiving a hum in response, signaling for her to continue. "How do you not get lost in here? It's like a maze."

He kept moving his head back and forth between the door numbers and in front of him. Glancing every which way, not quite making eye contact with her. If he ever did, it was only for a brief second, which wasn't long enough for her to get a good reading on what was running through his brain; that was her thing. Her ability was basically second nature to her, reading how other people were feeling based on body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, and anything else. If Amber had to guess, he knew she was trying to read him by his actions. Just how he knew, she didn't know. "You get used to it after a while. At first it was hard to navigate, now I know it almost like the back of my hand," he tells her.

She decided to also have a look around the doors, following his lead but she never lost sight of him. "Pretty big accomplishment I'd say," she returns. The air was tensing up and Sam knew he was hiding something from Amber, she had that sneaking suspicion. The majority of the time they would reign true. Quickly changing the subject, she tries to match up to Sam's longer strides. "What do you need in the library? I can help you look, make the time go by faster," she questions him.

He doesn't look back at her as they turn a corner almost to their destination. "Forgot to grab the book I needed for research. Won't take long," he says, somewhat distracted.

"Okay," she said. "What are you researching?"

"It's for a case I came across the other day," Sam replies, glancing back to make sure she was following him.

She was following him all right. What is he hiding? The thought ran through her mind. She finally caught up to him and his overly long legs, so now she's right in stride. "Uh-huh," she states, not believing the words he's spewing out, he wasn't even giving her a definite answer on top of it. It's starting to get on her nerves that he's not looking into her eyes or even looking at her, period. Not only is it rude but it's disrespectful, in her eyes. "By the way, where's Dean? Is he out gathering 'info'?

Amber sees that small smirk drag on his lips at the insinuation until it faded as if he started to remember the reality of a current situation. He sucked in a breath like he wanted to let someone down gently because a relationship wasn't working for them. "Uh, no. No. Dean's," he paused briefly, thinking of the right words to say. "Dean's taking a break from the case," he lets out.

She was taken aback at what she just heard. She definitely couldn't believe that. Did she even hear him right? "Wait, what? Dean's not working on the case?"

"I was surprised about it too," Sam responds. He looks back to Amber who starts walking again.

She looks up at him with a concerned expression on her face. "Do you know why?" She asks him.

He was silent for a little too long for her liking, he wouldn't look at her and it was starting to tick her off. "No, I don't. I wish he would tell me."

Amber narrows her eyes at him, she was mad now. This was enough. Why can't people tell the truth? It would not only make things easier, they probably would get in less trouble. "Want to run that by me again? Only this time tell me the truth. I know there's a thing you're not telling me. Spill," he hesitated to answer her, the look on his face told her that he was trying to find the right words to say or even tell her at all. She put a hand on his good arm and yanked him back so he would be facing her, causing them to stop. "Sam," saying his name like a mother catching her child in the middle of a lie.

Sam casts his eyes downward to the floor instead of looking she wanted him to look. If he did catch her gaze, it was only for a quick second. He takes a deep breath and slowly exhales, preparing to let everything out. He didn't want to tell her. It was too painful not only for him, but for his brother; especially his brother. "Dean…hasn't been okay, for some time now," he starts out. "He's not the same as he once was..." He takes a pause to collect himself before continuing. "Something happened a while back and it completely shattered him. It shocked all of us too."

She searches for something in his eyes whether it's the truth or what, there was something she found that made it believable, if only for the time being. "What happened?" She asks cautiously. She knew he would do anything for his brother and if he wasn't his normal self, Sam put everything he had into finding a way to get his brother back, no matter the cost.

He was trying is best to keep those emotions that were threating to break out, at bay. This wasn't like him for his emotions to creep up this fast or even at all, but since he figured that this was deep in his subconscious, it made it harder for him to lie to himself that everything was okay, for the time being until he was truly alone. "I..." He let out a low, quiet sigh which Amber had caught immediately.

She knew that this was hard for him, she knew it right away. Amber had seen that same look before; it was the exact one she had when she lost someone close to her. It was the same one after the reality sank in and it wasn't pretty. "You don't have to talk about it. I understand," she sent a small smile in his direction to hopefully get his mind off of whatever he was thinking of. He didn't deserve it. "Why don't we go grab that book, okay?"

Sam gives his best effort to return a smile after she pulled him out of his dark space of his mind. "Yeah," was his only response before they started walking and turned down another hallway. Based upon how the light in area was becoming brighter, they were getting close to their destination. "Library's just around the corner here," Sam tells her, a little distracted after finally calming down.

Amber looked at him, brows knitting together. She thought they were heading to a normal library; this bunker would be too small to hold that many books. There's also the saying that looks can be deceiving, which could be the case and she's open for anything coming her way. "You have a library in here?" She asked.

"Sure do," he said. "There's more than meets the eye when it comes to this bunker and Men of Letters stashed all sorts of documents around here. I'm sure there's tons of other rooms we haven't found yet."

She was utterly amazed at how this place could have even more rooms than the ones she saw in the halls. How many more could there be? Why did they need to have so many? Was it so no one else could steal everything they had? She inwardly groaned at the thought of all of the walked she would have to do if she ended up becoming lost in here. It would take forever for her to find her way around. It was still awesome there were hidden rooms scattered just waiting to be found. "That's actually pretty cool!" She commented. "What doesn't this place have?"

Sam laughed at how amazed this was to her. He was like that when they found this place too. He still kind of is but since it happened, this bunker sort of lost its luster. It became more like the walls were closing in on him rather than the open area it has in the rooms. "Haven't found that out yet. I'll let you know when we do."

They both come up through the war room into the library. Sam thought that no one else was in the space until he was proved wrong as another man was sitting in a wooden chair by one of the elongated oak tables. He looked to be exhausted. And from what Amber could see of him, he had bags under his eyes like he hasn't slept in a week, possibly two, his medium brown hair was short, with a spike in the front and some pieces that were fly away, causing a bed head appeal. His clothes, consisting of a pine colored button up with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, a pair of dark wash blue jeans that had wrinkles in them (but that could have been how he was sitting) and tan work boots. This was the man whom she had seen in that picture frame not more than twenty minutes ago, only, he was more beat down, haggard. She was stuck in her tracks a couple steps in back of Sam like her hand was caught stealing from the cookie jar. She shouldn't be like this. Just seeing him sitting at the table is making her feel like she should hightail it out of there-or at least run the other way and around the corner-so she wouldn't see him. "_C'mon self. Get it together. What's wrong with you?_" She thought. She wasn't aware of the noise her heels made until now. They were clacking along the floor the whole time and why did she just notice this? "_Dammit Amber! Get it together!"_

"Alright. Well let me know when you find him. Who knows how much stuff he's already messed up?" He orders the person on the other end in a brusque tone of his gruff voice. "Yeah, okay, Bye," he ended the conversation and places the phone onto the table, running his hands through his hair and all down his face in obvious frustration.

Sam walks up through the threshold going in as he alerts his brother. "Hey!"

"Hey," he didn't look up from the table which had papers scattered all over it and from what Amber could tell, there were tons of security cam images, print outs and old books staked into not so neat piles. It brought some sort of nostalgia to her. It reminded her of Bobby's with the amount of clutter and amount of paperwork. She broke out of her reminisce and was on high alert once again. She was just at Bobby's and now she's here; where ever this bunker is.

"Who was that?" Sam asks as he gets closer to him.

Dean continues to scan over the documents in front of them, shifting them around. "That, was Alfie," he starts off saying. "He thinks he has a lead on where and possibly when Cas is at, so he's off checking it out."

Sam's face shifted to something of surprise as he slows down his pacing to an almost complete stop. "Wow. That was fast," he commented.

"Chyeah," Dean chuffed. "I thought that too." He lifted his head to look at his brother until he froze as he saw who was following behind him, almost hesitantly. He would usually look away whenever this would happen. His mind was playing sickening tricks again and would ignore them. It was only this time that he couldn't do that. He had a feeling that this time around wasn't the same as the others. His eyes widened as the wind was knocked right out him, his complexion paled as if he was seeing a ghost; not that he hasn't before but this was completely different. This was a look of utter disbelief. It couldn't be possible, could it? He let that first instinct he felt take over. He didn't know where it would lead him, but something was pulling him along whether it was good or bad. Dean hated how his voice had a crack the very second he spoke that name and despite the hatred, it was an accurate representation of what he was feeling ever since he witnessed it firsthand; broken. "Amber?"

* * *

_**A/N: Oh man! The Bunker? Yes, Amber stabbed Sam with her heel. It was a quick thinking type of thing. Who knew women's shoes could be so deadly? What happened to Sam and Dean to where they're acting like that? Guess you'll have to wait and see! **_

_**OH, I also went back and rewrote the majority of the chapters. if you don't know or don't remember what's going on, then you might want to go back and reread again. It took me quite a long time to rewrite the majority of the chapters and I hope they are a lot better than how they used to be.**_

_**Also letting you guys know that as I have stated at the very beginning, this story is an AU of sorts, so the timeline has somewhat changed compared to the canon verse. There are some things that stayed the same while others were completely avoided. I'll try to explain what changed in the chapters themselves but if you are still confused then feel free to send me a PM, send me an email at ssecondascension (the double 's' at the front is intentional), or send me a message on tumblr "second-ascension" or "carryonmycobaltangel". I hope that this has cleared up some things as well.**_

_**Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and I hope to see you guys on the next one! Thank you so much for staying with me from the very start of this story. If you are a new reader, then welcome aboard! Hope you can stay for the long run! Get ready for emotional times in the chapter to come. Bring tissues!  
~Cobalt**_


	11. Chapter 11-Reminiscent of Days to Come

_**Second Ascension  
**__by CarryOnMyCobaltAngel_

Chapter 11/Reminiscent of Days to Come  
_"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."  
_~Flannery O'Connor

Time seemed to stand still once again. His mind was reeling, trying to comprehend the scene playing out in front of him and with this kind of life anything can happen, but he knew for a **fact** that this was not possible. She was gone and there wasn't a way to bring her back no matter how hard he had tried; nothing had worked. Dean rose out of this chair effortlessly, his body moved on its own gravitating towards the blonde haired woman. He didn't even hesitate to pull her into a bone-crushing hug like it was his only lifeline. The embrace enveloped her. She felt warm-secure even-but there was another feeling she didn't know why it was there. It was a sense of _belonging _beingheld in his arms, she felt at home. Maybe, just maybe, she **was** home. "I thought I lost you," Dean murmured the words softly into her ear. The way his voice had cracked as if it was opening a hole to see the rolling waves of emotions down below, and the substantial shock flooding his face along with the immediate response following soon after, made not only her eyes start to water, it also made her heart hurt because she couldn't bear to see anyone in pain. She didn't understand at that moment why he chose those words until the assumption that she held some great importance to him formed in the depths of her mind. "_Like that was even remotely true_,"she thought to herself. No one would want someone like _her_. She was a _demon_ for crying out loud! No one would want to love a demon. Why would anyone even bother?

Something in the back of her mind was telling her that this wasn't the time to let those feelings emerge. With a flip of a switch, her maternal instincts kicked in. Even though she was encased in this warm and comforting cocoon, she did what she could to hold him, to make sure that everything would be okay in the end. Wrapping her arms around his middle, she laid her head by his shoulder while rubbing soothing hands up and down his back the best she could reach as she pulled him in to return the gesture while murmuring reassuring words. "It's alright now, Dean. I'm here, I'm here now."

Maybe it was the words that helped or the usual 'Dean Winchester style' of handling emotions that calmed him down. It was a full minute later before he pulled away drying his eyes since he knew at least a couple of tears had fallen during the 'chick-flick moment' he surely didn't expect. Was he proud of it? Most likely not since his brother was standing right there watching it all happen, and Dean knew his brother knew that this had to be hard on him which he appreciated that (though he'd rarely admit it). He dropped his head down to admire her chartreuse eyes that were staring right back. "_It's been so long,_" He thought to himself. "_So, so long since I've seen those eyes_."

One little part of Dean's brain that told him that this wasn't real. He figured it was all he could do at this point as there wasn't any other way to look at it. The other part of his brain-a much larger part-was a more hopeful side wishing it was something more, that she was actually standing in front of him. And boy, would it be amazing! He wanted-no, **needed**-to have that confirmation of what he was experiencing was just a dream or something else entirely. "How are you here?" He asked quietly, not realizing the statement was said out loud.

Amber wasn't sure if she should say anything at all, but with a quick discussion with her subconscious, she made her decision. "I don't know," she answered him, casting her eyes to the floor.

Sam stood by the table closest to where he and Amber walked in, giving Dean his much needed space. He didn't want to impose on this moment but there was something about it was still bothering him. A quick second later, he decided to push the nagging sense to the back of his mind and just enjoy the fact that she was here. He then walked to the other table, taking a seat across from where his brother sat as his mind wandered. It didn't matter why or how, she's back and that's all that matters for right now. He immediately became saddened by that thought and the one right after. If Amber was back, would that mean _she_ was back as well? Whoever brought Amber back, were they only able to save one person? "_Cas is going to be heartbroken all over again. And what about Annabel? How is she going to take it?_"His eyes trailed upward at Amber and Dean, who were still standing in front of one another. His brother looked ultimately relieved while the look on her face was unreadable to Sam. If he had to guess, she was feeling the same way. They could finally be together again.

She could feel a pair of eyes focused on her. She figured that Sam was trying to read her just like she did with anyone else. Casting a small side-eye his way, she smiled small with thin lips as he looked away, being caught in his actions. Dean looked like he was about to ask more questions until he closed his mouth to reorganize his thoughts. He opened it again but she stopped him short by looking up to him, fully looking at his brother and back to Dean again. "Hey, uh, think we can head over to the tables?" She asked him, jerking a thumb in the general direction of said space. "My feet are killing me walking in these heels," Dean looked a little surprised at the sudden change of subject. Sending her a nod, they both walked off. Dean sat down in his previous seat at the edge, Sam was directly across from his brother and Amber took a chair one seat away from Dean. Her nervousness from earlier had continued to eat away at her. It just would not go away._ "Okay self, why are we still feeling nervous? This shouldn't be happening. C'mon Amber, get it together," _she reprimanded in her head._ "Dammit, I should have sat next to Sam. Nice going..."_

No one said anything for a full two minutes. Both the boys were trying to get all of their thoughts and ideas together while Amber was figuring out just what the hell was wrong with her and why her stomach was starting to twist and turn. Maybe she could get her mind off of whatever was bothering her by finding out some more information. Any and everything she could squeeze out of them. On top of that, this silence was becoming uncomfortable for her and possibly for them too. "So, what did I miss?" She asks.

"What do you mean?" Sam pipes up with a confused look on his face.

She sent a look that spoke '_Really?_"' at him and his face then changed into a quick understanding then into something of embarrassment.

It was a small moment until someone spoke again. This time it was Dean's turn to say something. He sucked in a large breath and let it out slowly through his nose. "..After...After, you know," he starts, then taking a pause to cast his eyes downward then glances up to see Amber slightly nod her head, giving him the signal to continue what he was explaining. "It was tough on everyone," a quirk of his lips molded into a smirk "since death seems to be so common around us," but quickly faded away as he continued speaking. "I think we've moved past it-maybe not fully-but we're getting there."

"And during that time, we were doing what we could to break all of this chaos from the Angels, Demons, Croats, even the normal cases too," Sam adds. "It's been one thing after another, after another. It never seemed to end. Months after...you died...Abaddon and Aliyah," Amber froze at the second name mentioned for a fraction of a second as Sam continued to explain, "Were,"

"Ganked," Dean interrupted with a great smile on his face.

"Yeah," Sam frowned as he turned his head to Dean then back to Amber. "Metatron hasn't been seen since and his 'army' haven't attacked. Or at least there hasn't been any signs of attacks anyway," he finished.

To say that Amber was confused was one giant understatement. The only thing she was able to pick out were two things: one singular name, and she hated it with a fiery passion. But more importantly, she..._**died**_?! What did they mean she died? Just what in the hell happened?! Setting her utter bewilderment to the side, she mentally opened up a portion of her brain for storing information, and she was going to suck up as much as possible like a sponge. Dean's face shifted to curiousness and narrowed his eyes ever so slightly when he noticed Amber stiffen, her eyes widen just a fraction for a split second, then changed to confusion until she quickly recovered to show somewhat of a neutral face. It was a little hard for her to do because of how hard she expressed those emotions. Everything she felt was displayed perfectly clear through her facial semblances and mannerisms. All of the sensations she would experience would always be at one thousand times more than what the 'average' person would feel and then some. Amber's seemingly insignificant but tremendously expressive facial fidgets were something Dean had mastered from reading them over the years that they had all spent together. Now she was trying her best to hide them, but no way would that ever get past Dean, no matter how hard she was now trying. He was certainly grateful he had paid so much close attention, as now he was able to decode not only Amber's feelings but her thoughts as well, created from her sets of passionate facial movements. Based upon what he had seen, there was a pretty good understanding of what was running through her mind and he would take his, along with his brother, time to explain any and everything that needed to be clarified. "What's wrong? What are you confused about?" Dean asked her patiently.

Amber sat in her chair for a second, blinking with a dazed look on her face as the information tried to soak into her mind before finally speaking to the brothers. "Okay, so the Angels and Demons I understand. What are the Croats or whatever? Abaddon, Metatron, who're they? And more importantly, I…died? I'm dead?! How?! What the fuck happened? Where the Hell am I? How'd I end up here?" Sending the out the questions faster and faster and the more she talked, the more her words started to slur together in rapid-fire succession. She didn't believe what she was hearing. How was this even possible?

"Whoa, whoa. Amber. Hang on, slow down," Sam tried his best to keep her calm, but it wasn't working as well as he would have hoped. "Just take a breath, and slow down."

"Then tell me what the hell is going on!" Anger and more confusion became apparent in her words and on her face. "Where am I? How the hell did I get here? First I was over at Bobby's trying to talk to Alissa after we had that fight after she found out I was a-" Amber immediately stopped her words short for fear of what they would think of her after she let those words slip past her mouth and they finally knew the truth. She slowly started to rise out of her seat after getting the feeling that she wasn't safe in the room, that she had to get out of there-much like she had when she first woke up in that room.

Dean turned to Amber once she halted in her ramblings and took the opportunity to hopefully calm her down since Sam didn't seem have any luck. He could see from her body language that she was about ready to bolt from the chair and out of the room, ready to get away. Hopefully what he would tell her would get her to change her mind and listen to what the both of them had to say. "Amber. You need to take a breath," he instructed her. "We'll tell you everything on what happened. Just, please, stay?" Amber still held her pose for a moment not quite sure how to proceed until Dean backed up out of his chair, stood up and walked to the end of the table where another chair was placed. "Here, I'll give you some room to breathe and think it through," he told her as he walked over, pulling out the chair and took his seat right then and there. She mulled it over another moment. Warning bells were still ringing in the back of her head to get out of there, yet something was telling her to stay. Maybe it was the meaning behind the words that Dean told her-it was as if he was pleading with her to come back or it was something totally different that finally changed her decision. Amber then scooted her chair a little closer to the table, taking in some air as she did so, then releasing it as one long sigh. She lifted her head and passed glances back and forth between the brothers, licking her lips subconsciously as she placed her overlapping arms lazily on the tabletop. That was more than enough of a 'yes' to start the breakdown of its entirety. "Thank you," Dean commented, sounding a little relieved.

A minute had passed before any of them has spoken. She thought to herself that despite wanting to run, she would have to push those instincts away for now and at least listen to what both of them had to say. She sent out another sigh "Might as well get this over with…What all do you have for me?"

"That all depends on the questions you ask," Dean commented.

"Oh gee, really? I never would have figured that out. Thank you so much for the enlightenment," the sarcasm rolled off her tongue while a deadpanned expression rested on her features as she moved her face over to Dean's. She then leaned back in her chair as she crossed her arms over her chest with ease.

Sam rose up out of his chair and stretched a little until wincing from the pull of the stitches in his arm. "I think this is gonna be a long night for us all, so, I'm going to head out and go grab some food. Be back in about fifteen minutes," he informed them and started walking out of the library heading towards the War room.

"Don't ruin your stitches!" Amber called after him, her head turned in his direction.

"Got it!" Sam called back as he continued on his way.

Amber turned her head to face Dean again and was greeted with furrowed brows and a small head tilt of curiousness. "I knew something was up. What happened to Sam?" Dean asked.

She sent out a small nervous laugh before answering. "That, uh, was me," she told him, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table and when she had seen Dean's face change to concern, she went further into an explanation. "I, uh, stabbed him in the arm with my heel. I needed to get away, so I used it as a weapon. I didn't realize it was Sam until I backed off, heard his gun drop on the floor, and I saw the heel lodged in the upper part of his arm," she finished with a little nervousness playing in her smile.

A grin appeared on his face as he lowered and shook his head, emitting a laugh. He looked back up to see Amber had visibly relaxed somewhat. "So let me get this straight. Out of self-defense, you stabbed Sammy in the arm with your heel that ended up in his arm?" And when he saw that Amber nodded her head in confirmation, he sent out a laugh, or two. "That's hilarious," he said, trying to laugh any harder than what he already was, eyes squinted with crinkles protruding from the sides and mouth wide with happiness until he finally calmed down after a minute. "Oh, Sammy. Of course, it'd be you who gets stabbed with a women's shoe," he finally added, a grin sported on his lips.

"Okay," she started to say and when Dean saw that her contented smile faded to a thinned mouth, he knew that whatever she was about to say next would be something serious; and he was right. Amber then let out a small sigh, mentally preparing herself for any answers she would be receiving. "Not to shut down this happy moment but this has been bugging me for a little while, and I was hoping you could tell me. I just...You and Sam said that I…died," she let out a short breath. "Even I can't say that fully without pausing," she said more to herself than to him. Just those two little words she uttered made that pill so damn hard to swallow. How could anyone be comfortable saying those two words? She died, and dying really wasn't a foreign thing to her because for one she was demon. A person would have to die, be sent to Hell and tortured until the soul becomes blackened beyond recognition, and finally crawl out in to the air that was once familiar to them. And two, she was a hunter after all. Death seems to follow them like a puppy following their master. "I guess what I'm trying to ask is," Amber started off her sentence.

"How exactly you died?" until Dean finished it for her. "I'm guessing you don't remember what happened?" When Amber shook her head, he knew this was going to be hard for him to bring all those memories back up to the surface, especially that one. It was one that would always keep playing over and over in his brain, weeks and even months after it happened. Now normally he wasn't one to let those emotions have such a hold onto him, but it's been ten years of true happiness he never got to fully experience until now, only to have the rug yanked out from underneath him without warning, and it still broke his heart all over again in ways he couldn't even identify-let alone try to explain to someone what he was feeling. He pulled in a breath, gathering up everything he was going to say. Maybe, if he talked about it would make the weighted emotions he carried lighter in some way, he would be ever so grateful not to have this heavy heart he toted around anymore.

"I'll start off at the beginning of why we were there in the first place," Dean starts, running a hand down his face, back up through his hair and finally resting on the table top along with the other one. He leaned forward and laced his fingers together, getting ready to tell this tale of his. "Apparently Metatron, who used to be God's scribe at one point, sent a couple of dickwad angels our way. We-Sam, Cas, Alissa, You, Aza and I- were trying to track him down because he wanted Heaven all to himself since, you know, God left and everything. He felt that he could do a better job at it. We figured out that plan and tried to stop him. Well since we always have the best of luck, we were stopped by the majority of his crew," he rolled out the sarcasm briefly, then continued on. "In the midst of all that chaos, Alissa was nabbed. We didn't know it until Cas said something," Dean stopped talking for a moment to gather up the strength to continue because what would eventually be coming up soon was the thing he never thought he would have seen in his life. We looked everywhere for her. Aza left to go check that maybe she ended up in Heaven somehow. You and Cas were getting worried, anxious and knowing him, he was probably fearing for the worst to come. You went on ahead to check things out and about two minutes later we heard all this shouting. It was some sort of commotion going on. So we ended up following it and what we saw-what I saw…" he broke off his sentence and put a hand over his mouth, his eyes were starting to shine from the forming tears threatening to fall. A shaky breath exited his mouth while lacing his hand back to the other one. It took him another moment more to compose himself.

_**Amber go up off the ground as fast as she could after being knocked down from Metatron's henchmen-now dead on the floor-that were in his library turned into an office. "ALISSA! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Amber yelled once she got to her friend. Metatron's third henchmen held the Angel blade skillfully and swung it just as Amber pushed her way in front of Alissa to shield her from the incoming blow. She didn't stop to think, she only sprang into action. The blade entered into her stomach and a jolt of electric, white hot pain surged through her. Then, and only then did she realize exactly what she had done. Alissa was stunned. She knew that Amber would keep her friends safe but she never would have guessed it would resort to literally throwing herself in the line of fire as if it was her sole duty to make sure the ones she loved stayed alive. Alissa held onto Amber as she fell back and lowered carefully to the floor from the blade that was now stuck in her abdomen. A fearful laugh slips out of Amber's mouth once the realization of her actions started to sink in. There'd be no way out of this one. Not this time.**_

"When Alissa told me what happened…I couldn't believe it," Dean told Amber. Tears were now freely flowing down her face as she listen to the words he spoke. She first thought what he said wasn't true. No way in Hell, but the more she pondered it, the more believable and shocking it became. Yes, she _would_ go those great-sometimes absolute terrifying lengths to keep her friends and family safe and there was no single question about it. "I mean…I understand why you did that," she heard him say as she wiped away more tears from her eyes. "If I was in that position and that was Sammy instead of her…I would do the exact same thing, no doubt about it," she had heard him send out a mirthless laugh and then continued on. "I don't know whether to consider that a good or bad thing anymore. Which is a scary thing to think about after all those years," he added as she tried to hold back the rushing tears, but they just would not stop. She mentally scolded herself saying that she should not be crying this much and how she needs to pull it together. She never expect this many tears to fall, but she also never expected this kind of story either. It was almost too much to choke down at once.

Dean was about to keep going but was stopped short when the two of them heard rustling of paper bags enter in the room, signaling one giant named Sam had returned from his food run. Both of them turned towards the noise to see that Sam was carrying three bags and three medium soft drinks in a plastic carrier from a local burger joint. "Hey," he alerted. "Hope you guys don't mind the food; had to stop somewhere," he told them as he walk to where he originally sat and started handing out respected food choices and drinks. Sam was about to say something to Amber until he had seen the looks on both of her and Dean's faces. He stood there not knowing what had happened just before he walked in. "Hey, you guys okay? What did I miss?" he questioned them both carefully.

Dean blinked back a couple times to stop the threatening tears on the surface from breaching over the edge. "I was just explaining to her how…she died and what happened afterwards," Dean looked up to his brother as Amber wiped away stray tears that had already fallen from her misty, puffy red eyes.

Sam's face contorted in sympathy and understanding of what he was just told. He soon felt rueful for what he had just did; for walking in on such an emotional time. "Oh, man. I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Nah, dude. It's okay," Dean waved off Sam's start of an apology. "_He didn't know what was going on when he walked in_," he thought to himself. "Just grab what you need to, sit down and…I'll continue explaining the rest of it," by the way his voice sounded when he told Sam, it broadcasted how he had felt deep down since dredging up these old memories; enervated. "Anyways…As I was saying earlier, you went up ahead to check things out…and it was a minute or two later that we heard some shouting and commotion. We all ran as fast as we could trying to get to you guys. I swear we ran like a bat outta Hell."

"Once we, uh, got there in that room, Alissa was hovering over you, kneeling on the floor crying her eyes out," Sam explained, taking over for Dean, who definitely need a break and he was thankful for it. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Both he," he gestured quickly to Dean with his hand as he glanced down then up after shifting his position in his chair, "and Cas rushed past me. I felt like I couldn't move," Sam paused for a second. "Aza popped back in and immediately she noticed something was wrong and that broke me out of it. I looked around and saw that Metatron was nowhere to be found, probably took off during the whole fight. As soon as I saw the look on Alissa's face, I knew something had happened but I never realized just how bad it was until I saw it for myself," as Sam was telling the story, Dean stared at the drink he subconsciously toyed with in his hands, letting his vision drift in and out of focus while Amber idly sipped hers; the food growing colder with each passing minute.

_**Dean knelt down in front of Amber's body just as Alissa got up shakily to give him some room. "Amber..?" Dean asked aloud, not trying to fear for the worst. "Amber sweetie, wake up. C'mon. Don't be joking with me now-I know you can hear me. Don't die on me, please," his voice started to falter as everything start to settle in, 'What about all those jokes we used to make, huh? About settling down and raising a family; have a beautiful daughter named Esme who'll look just like her momma with those big green eyes, sassy attitude and a big, caring heart. That apple pie life, white picket fence and everything," Dean smiled a brittle smile but soon faded away as he casts his head low when he had received no response and the reality set in, he then pulls Amber's body close to him while stray tears start to fall. "Please...come back," he murmurs the words like a plea as they slip from his trembling lips. "D-Don't leave me behind, I can't do this without you..." He pauses and readies his final word in hopes it wouldn't be the thing that brings his fears to reality. "Please..." It was all in vain when he heard the sobs echoing in the space from her best friend who was held in the embrace of Castiel, whom shared the emotions they all felt in that very room. It was another minute more before anyone said anything. They all gave a moment of silence until it was time for them to leave, carrying heavy hearts as they walked out of the building and to the Impala, Azafreal leaving to meet them all at the bunker. Not only had Dean lost the love of his life (to which he would proudly admit), he had also lost a potential son or daughter in the process, and that made his heart sink to the very pit of his stomach, cracking and breaking on its way down.**_

Immediately after Sam had informed that Amber had been pregnant with Dean's child, both brothers heard a choking sound that was quickly followed by the start of a coughing fit. They broke out of their doleful reveries to look over in her direction, finding that she held a hand up to her mouth to try and keep the coughs to herself, not letting the germs spread elsewhere. What she had meant to do was a spit-take after taking a gulp of her Diet Coke, but it had backfired terribly which caused the liquid to go down the wrong part of her throat, thus resulting in an annoying cough-a-thon. Sending a curious glance between them, they then faced Amber to express their weird expressions on their face and concern in their voices.

"You okay?" Sam asked

"Y-Yeah," Amber answered in between her pesky coughs.

"You sure?" Dean then asked her.

Her coughs started to die down giving her enough air and time to answer like she wanted to. "Yeah, I'm f-fine," she answered. "Just went down the wrong h-hole." Both of the brothers gave her a look of uncertainty until Amber waved them off. "G-Guys, seriously I'm fine. Just go b-back to what you were explain e-earlier," a couple more coughs exited before Sam gave her a strange look then went back to what he was saying earlier. Dean then took a sip of his drink absentmindedly.

"Okay," Sam started. "Uh, not long after we made it back here, we…gave you a hunter's funeral upon the pyre out in back…and paid our respects. All of us were in mourning for a while," Sam continued to tell the story.

"But during that time we found ways to cope whether it was on the jobs we found, or researching or taking out some fallen Angels, Demons or Croats, whatever we could find," Dean spoke up, interjecting him as he continued to stare at the cup in his hands.

"Croats?" She drew her brows together, once she finally calmed down from the fit.

"Yeah, those nasty things are a part of a demon virus that made anyone infected via blood to blood contact into murderous zombie-like creatures. They're a pain in the ass to kill," Sam answered.

"Demon virus?" She sounded a little surprised when hearing that. A virus. Created by demons, and it could do _that_ to people? "_Oh God, where did I end up at_?" she thought to herself, like she was going crazy.

"Yeah, it was supposedly created by Lucifer, but somehow Aliyah and Abaddon got their hands on it," Dean replied.

"Abaddon? Who's he?"

"_She_," Dean corrected. "Is-or should I say was, a Knight of Hell that Aliyah brought back to life because Aliyah managed to find some sort of spell to bring her back along with a way to create the damn thing. Abaddon took what Aliyah found and caused this demon virus to spread everywhere. She not only wanted to rule the Earth, but also take over Hell and push Crowley off his throne-"

"Whoa, whoa. Crowley?" she interrupted. "How's he involved?" Astonishment fell over her immediately as she leaned forward to sit straight up in her chair with eyes widened and brows raised.

Dean sent a look of concern her way then glanced over to his brother who showed something similar. "_How could she not remember? This all happened before she died. Unless this isn't the real her and this my brain creating a version of her in some sort of dream. Wait, if that's true, then how is Sam here?_" The thoughts ran in his mind. It wasn't making sense to him and he was going to figure out why. "I thought you knew all this?" He inquired as he shifted in his seat to lean over the table, moving his drink out of the way in the process.

"What was the last thing you remember?" Sam asked a question of his own right after Dean's. He had a sneaking suspicion of why she was asking something that she should have already known, or at least somewhat know.

"I wouldn't be asking if I did, now would I?" she returned. "As for the last thing I remember," she moved her eyes to look at Sam then to Dean as she placed her arms on top of the table, overlapping them lazily, just as she too moved her drink out of the way so she wouldn't knock it over accidentally. "Just walking out of Bobby's place once I found Alissa," she told them, rubbing a small itch she thought she had on her arm, by the crook of the elbow with her thumb.

"Hold on," Dean said immediately after she did. "At Bobby's? What were you doing at Bobby's?"

"And what do you mean you 'found Alissa'?" Sam inquired, again following up after his brother.

"I found Alissa there after she somehow disappeared from her place back in Michigan. Wait," she suddenly stopped in her explanation. "What do _you_ mean by 'What do you mean I found 'found Alissa'?" she asked, accusation subtlety placed in her voice. "What's wrong? She's okay…right?" When both of the brothers instantly went silent for a moment, knots started to twist inside her gut signaling that something wasn't right and she suddenly felt that she couldn't breathe because if they meant what she thought they meant…She didn't dare finish that thought crossing through her mind. No way would that happen.

"Yeah, yeah. She's okay, she's good. She's off on a supply run; should be back within a couple hours," Sam stated, his voice a smidge higher than normal, which caused Sam to internally wince not only at the sound of his voice, it was also the word choice he decided to use. Even Dean immediately noticed what Sam had done but chose not to address it. "Now, you were saying?" Sam asked, switching the subject to an earlier one.

But it was enough for Amber for the sudden knots in her stomach and loss of breath to dissipate. She then sent out a quiet and relieved sigh as her one of her worst fears hadn't come true. "Um, yeah. We were having an argument and Castiel defended me because she found out I was a demon-," Amber stopped her sentence short, instantly regretting the words that came out of her mouth. "_Shit_!" She cursed to herself. "_Oh, this is going to be fun…_"

With a cautious look on her face, Sam then took action to hopefully stop those warning bells that were blaring in the back of her mind. "Hey, hey, hey, Amber. It's all right, we know you're a demon," Sam reassured her. "You're okay."

"Whoa-WHAT?" Amber was taken completely aback. Nervousness started to creep up through her body once again. She was seriously hating how close she was to Dean and Sam at the moment because in the back of her mind, there was a warning blaring in her mind to get the hell out of there. "How did you-"

"We found out from Alissa years ago," even with what Sam told her, she still didn't feel safe in the room they were all in. She had to get out.

The need to move was growing steadily. She slowly pushed herself away from the table and started rising up out of her chair "And you're not going to kill me?" She hesitantly asked. "_Last I checked, you slaughtered fuckers like me. We're the bad guys in all this_," she thought to herself. The need only seemed to increase further when Dean rose up out of his chair as well and started towards her, causing her to move away in fear. "No, no, no. Stay back," she told him holding out her hand in front of her, palm facing out as she kept moving backwards, bumping her hip into the chair she was sitting in as she moved further back.

Dean moved slowly with his hands shown, palm facing her to show that he meant no harm but it was useless her senses were in overdrive. "Amber," he said to her coolly and once she noticed that Sam too got up, it only made it worse.

"S-stay back guys," she insisted. It only took all three of them a couple more steps before she turned around and bolted out of the library to the war room and down the hallway, trying to get as much space between them as possible, heels clacking down the tile with every step taken.

"Amber, wait!" Dean called out, then mumbled to himself "Dammit…" He almost chased after her until his brother stopped him with a hand on his left arm. Dean looked back at Sam to see the look of the gears turning in his mind. "What?" Dean asked his statement-like question as Sam released his hand from his arm.

"Dean. What if the Amber we're seeing," Sam paused the train of thought for a second until picking it up again at the spot he left off. "Isn't the Amber we know?"

"Well yeah, how could she be? You said it yourself, we burned her body. She can't come back if there's no body to possess and when demons die, there's nothing left to them anymore," Dean didn't mean for those words to sound as harsh as they came out to be in which he mentally winced at them. All in all, it was the truth; a sad, melancholy truth.

"I know that," Sam said. "What I mean is…What if this 'Amber' was brought here from the past somehow. I remember when I was talking with her earlier, she said that the last time she saw me was back at Bobby's on a Skype call with Alissa. The only time that I can think of was back in twenty fifteen, with that case she had to go to her grandma's in Michigan," he stated. "I mean there's a high possibility that someone could have brought her here."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Dean agreed, letting out a quick sigh. "And it's been that long? Wow…can't believe it's been fifteen years already," he said, mulling over the fact of how time sure had flown since then.

"And plus, you've seen her reactions to some of the stuff we were telling her. She had no freaking clue what we were talking about," Sam pointed out, to which Dean agreed as well.

"Yeah," Dean said, which was soon was followed by a short silence. "Do you think we should have told her everything?" He asked, staring in the direction Amber was previously running towards.

"Dean. Right now, she's trying to choke down the fact that she ended up with you, died protecting her best friend, and all the while being pregnant with your kid," Sam remarked.

"I get that, I do, but don't you think she should at least know that her best friend-the one she _died_ protecting for is-" Dean stated.

"She can only handle so much at one time," only to be interrupted by his younger brother. "Why overload her?"

"It's not going to be pretty once she finds out," Dean mentioned. Another small silence passed between them until Dean's eyes widened in sudden remembrance. "Oh _shit_," he cursed.

"What?" Sam asked, his voice spoke like he should be preparing for the worst.

"Annabel," was all Dean answered with in return before Sam too also widened his eyes. Both brothers then sprang into motion taking off the down the same way Amber ran just a few minutes ago, hurriedly racing down the halls in a furor of stomping boots across the tiled floor.

* * *

_**A/N:Oh wow! What an interesting chapter this was! Sorry if anyone seems a little OOC.**_

_**Hey guys, I know it's been awhile since my last upload and I'm sorry for that but July and going into August haven't been so good for me which included not being at to go to college due to the tuition cost, not able to get any funding from all the grants/scholarships I've filled out, and an end to a long friendship of 7/8 years, I didn't think it would ever end the way it did. This person has helped me **_**_tremendously with this story and after the ties have been cut, I just didn't feel like writing and even if I did, I felt like re-doing everything but I also didn't want to go back and spend all that time again reworking when I just basically got back from doing it. So I think the best way for me to move on is just finish up what I have for this section of the story and give this character a send off. I'm sure she is/was one of your favorite characters but I can't keep putting myself through this pain. _****_These upcoming chapters are going to be harder to write and excuse them if they seem to fall short compared to my other ones. I'm trudging through._**

**_Anyway guys, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get chapter 12 done but I hope I can get it up soon so you won't have to wait as long as you did this time and the time before that. Take care!_**

**_~Cobalt_**


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